Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

One of the best-loved of
all stories for children,
illustrated by Arthur
Rackham.

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ALICE’S ADVENTURES
_IN WONDERLAND

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William Heinemann Ltd
LONDON MELBOURNE TORONTO
JOHANNESBURG AUCKLAND

First Published 1907
Reprinted 1912, 1916, 1917, 1919, 1922, 1924,
1928, 1929, 1930, 1933, 1947, 1966 (twice), 1967, 1969
434 95856 5
BEDFORD 2%

owe soe

CLASS ¢
| Pe aR ae |

CODE
Cc

ACCESSION 954207

Printed in Great Britain
by Morrison & Gibb Limited
London and Edinburgh

’°T1s two score years since Carrott's art,
With topsy-turvy magic,

Sent Arce wondering through a part
flalf-comti and half-tragic.

Enchanting Arce! Black-and-white
flas made your deeds perennial ;

And naught save “ Chaos and old Night”
Can part you now from Tenner ;

Bui stild you ave a Type, and based
ln Lruth, tke Lear and Hamcer ;

And Types may be re-draped to taste
In cloth-of-gold or canelet.

flere comes a fresh Costumter, then ;
That Taste may gain a wrinkle

From him who drew with such deft pen
The rags of Rip Van Wrnrcze /

AUSTIN DOBSCN.

All in the golden afternoon
Full leisurely we glide ;

For both our oars, with little skiil,
By little arms are plied,

While little hands make vain pretence
Our wanderings to guide.

Ah, cruel Three! In such an hour,
Beneath such dreamy weather,

To beg a tale of breath too weak
To stir the tiniest feather!

Yet what can one poor voice avail
Against three tongues together ?

Imperious Prima flashes forth
Her edict ‘‘to begin it ”—
_n gentler tone Secunda hopes
“There will be nonsense in it !”—
While Tertia interrupts the tale
Not more than once a minute.

Anon, to sudden silence won,
In fancy they pursue

The dream-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new,

In friendly chat with bird or beast —
And half believe it true.

And ever, as the story drained
The wells of fancy dry.

And faintly strove that weary one
To put the subject by,

“The rest next time—” “It zs next time!”
The happy voices cry.

Thus grew the tale of Wonderland :
Thus slowly, one by one,

Its quaint events were hammered out—
And now the tale is done,

And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.

Alice! a childish story take,
And with a gentle hand

Lay it where Childhood’s dreams are twined
In Memory’s mystic band,

Like pilgrim’s wither’d wreath of tlowers
Pluck’d in a far-off land.

XII.

CONTENTS

Down THE RABBIT-HOLE .

. PIG AND PEPPER
. A Map TEa-PArRTY

THE QUEEN’s CROQUET-GROUND

1. THE Poot or TEARS

.

. A CAUCUS-RACE AND A LONG TALE
. THE RABBIT SENDS IN A LITTLE BILL

. ADVICE FROM A CATERPILLAR .

. THE Mock TurRTLE’s STORY

THE LoBsTER QUADRILLE

ALICE’S EVIDENCE

. WuHo STOLE THE TarRTS ?

LIST OF THE PLATES

To face
page
. Alice : : : . Frontispiece
The Pool of Tears 22
They all crowded round it panting and asking: . But
who has won? ”’ 28
““ Why, Mary Ann, what are you aha out a a 36
Advice from a Caterpillar 50
An unusually large eae flew disse pyit it, = eae
nearly carried it off 70
It grunted again so sioleriy, that ane ae aan into
its face in some alarm . 74
A Mad Tea-Party . 84
The Queen turned angrily away from ite iia said. to the
Knave: ‘‘ Turn them over’ 100
The Queen never left off Peale, with the othe
players, and shouting: ‘‘ Off with his head! ’’
“* Off with her head! ”’ 116
The Mock Turtle drew a ane breath ae Gia: a That's
very curious ’ «2 132
Who stole the Tarts? ; 140
At this the whole pack rose up into the air, Sena came
flying down upon her : 158

CHAR LIER: |
(Ga)LICE was beginning to get very Down the

IE
ds & k\ oy
ts

Rabbit-

tired of sitting by her sister on 77°)

SN the bank, and of having nothing
~ to do: once or twice she had
peeped into the book. her sister was reading,
but it had no pictures or conversations in
it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought
Alice, “ without pictures or conversations ?”

So she was considering in her own mind
(as well as she could, for the hot day made
her feel very sleepy and stupid) whether the
pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be
worth the trouble of getting up and picking
the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit
with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in
that; nor did Alice think it so very much out
of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, “On
dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” (when

I

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

mintembnemmnnnmienismbnne ose pees
Down the she thought it over afterwards, it- occurred

Rabbit-
Hole

to her that she ought to have wondered at
this, but at the time it all seemed quite
natural); but when the Rabbit actually Zook
a watch out of its watstcoat-pocket, and
looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice
started to her feet, for it flashed across her
mind that she had never before seen a rabbit
with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to
take out of it, and burning with curiosity,
she ran across the field after it, and was just
in time to see it pop down a large rabbit- hole
under the hedge.

In another moment down went Alice after
it, never once considering how in the world
she was to get out again.

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a
tunnel for some way, and then dipped
suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had
not a moment to think about stopping herself
before she found herself falling down what
seemed to be avery deep well.

Either the well was very deep, or she fell
very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she
went down to look about her, and to wonder

what was going to happen next. First, she
2

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

tried to look down and make out what she Down the
was coming to, but it was too dark to see re
anything ; then she looked at the sides of the

well and noticed that they
were filled with cupboards and
book-shelves: here and there
she saw maps and _ pictures
hung upon pegs. She took
down a jar from one of the
Shelves as she passed; it was
labelled “ORANGE MAR-
MALADE,” but to her dis-
appointment it was empty;
she did not like todropthe @
jar for fear of killing some-

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Down the body underneath, so managed to put it into

Rabbit-
Hole

one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

“Well!” thought Alice to herself. ‘“ After
such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of
tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all
think me at home! Why, I wouldn’t say
anything about it, even if I fell off the
top of the house!” (Which was very likely
true.)

Down, down, down. Would the fall xever
come to an end? “I wonder how many miles
I’ve fallen by this time?” she said aloud. “I
must be getting somewhere near the centre of
the earth. Let me see: that would be four
thousand miles down. I think—” (for, you
see, Alice had learnt several things of this
sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and
though this was not a very good opportunity
for showing off her knowledge, as there was
no one to listen to her, still it was good prac-
tice to say it over) “‘—yes, that’s about the
right distance—but then I wonder what Lati-
tude or Longitude I’ve got to?” (Alice had
no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude
either, but thought they were nice grand
words to say.)

4

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Presently she began again. ‘I wonder if Down the
I shall fall right svough the earth! How pba

funny it'll seem to come out among the people
that walk with their heads downwards! The
Antipathies, I think—” (she was rather glad
there was no one listening, this time, as it
didn’t sound at all the right word) “—but
I shall have to ask them what the name of the
country is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this
New Zealand or Australia?” (and she tried to
curtsey as she spoke—fancy curtseying as
you're falling through the air! Do you think
you could manage it?) ‘And what an igno-
rant little girl shell think me! No, it'll
never do toask: perhaps I shall see it written
up somewhere.”

Down, down, down. There was nothing
else to do, so Alice soon began talking again.
‘“Dinah’ll miss me very much to-night, I
should think!” (Dinah was the cat.) “I
hope they’ll remember her saucer of milk at
tea-time. Dinah, my dear, I wish you were
down here with me! There are no mice in
the air, I’m afraid, but you might catch a bat,
and that’s very like a mouse, you know. But
do cats eat bats, I wonder?” And here Alice

5

Down the
Rabbit-
Hole

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying
to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, ‘‘ Do cats
eat bats? Docats eat bats?” and sometimes,
“Do batsmeatscatse” fort snows see eas route
couldn’t answer either question, it didn’t
much matter which way she put it. She felt
that she was dozing off, and had just begun
to dream that she was walking hand in hand
with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly,
‘Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever
eat a bat?” when suddenly, thump! thump!
down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry
leaves, and the fall was over.

Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped
up on to her feet in a moment: she looked
up, but it was all dark overhead; before her
was another long passage, and the White
Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it.
There was not a moment to be lost: away
went Alice like the wind, and was just in time
to hear it say, as it turned a corner, “ Oh my
ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!” She
was close behind it when she turned the corner,
but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she
found herself ina long, low hall, which was lit
up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.

ne et

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

There were doors all round the hall, but
they were all locked; and when Alice had been
all the way down one side and up the other,
trying every door, she walked sadly down the
middle, wondering how she was ever to get
out again.

Suddenly she came upon a little three-
legged table, all made of solid glass; there
was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and
Alice’s first idea was that this might belong
to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas!
either the locks were too large, or the key was
too small, but at any rate it would not open
any of them. However, on the second time
round, she came upon a low curtain she had
not noticed before, and behind it was a little
door about fifteen inches high: she tried the
little golden key in the lock, and to her great
delight it fitted |

Alice opened the door and found that it led
into a small passage, not much larger than a
rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along
the passage into the loveliest garden you ever
saw. How she longed to get out of that dark
hall, and wander about among those beds of
bright flowers and those cool fountains, but

r

7

Down the
Rabbit-
Hole

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Down the she could not even get her head through the

Rabbit-
Hole

doorway; and even if my head would go
through,” thought poor Alice, ‘it would be of
very little use without my shoulders. Oh,
how I wish I could shut up like a telescope!
I think I could, if I only knew how to begin.”
For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things
had happened lately, that Alice had begun to
think that very few things indeed were really
impossible.

There seemed to be no use in waiting by
the little door, so she went back to the table,
half hoping she might find another key on it,
or at any rate a book of rules for shutting
people up like telescopes: this time she found
a little bottle on it (“ which certainly was not
here before,” said Alice,) and tied round the
neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the
words ‘““DRINK ME” beautifully printed
on it in large letters.

It was all very well to say ‘ Drink me,”
but the wise little Alice was not going to do
that in a hurry. “No, I'll look first,” she
said, ‘‘and see whether it’s marked ‘fozson’
or not;” for she had read several nice little
stories about children who had got burnt,
8

»

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

and eaten up by wild beasts, and other Down ss
unpleasant things, all because they would a as
: urea ole

not remember the simple rules their friends

had taught them: such as, that a red-hot
poker will burn you if you hold it too
long; and that, if you cut your finger very
deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and

she had never forgotten that, if you drink
much from a bottle marked “ poison,” it is
almost certain to disagree with you, sooner

or later.

However, this bottle was zof marked
“poison,” so Alice ventured to taste it, and
finding it very nice (it had, in fact, a sort of
mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-
apple, roast turkey, coffee, and hot buttered
toast,) she very soon finished it off.

* * * * *

“What a curious feeling!” said Alice.

-“T must be shutting up like a telescope.”
And so it was indeed: she was now only
ten inches high, and her face brightened up
at the thought that she was now the right
size for going through that little door into
that lovely garden. First, however, she
2,

Down the
Rabbit-
Hole

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

waited for a few minutes to see if she was
going to shrink any further: she felt a little
nervous about this: “for it might end, you
know,” said Alice to herself, “in my going
out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what
I should be like then?” And she tried to
fancy what the flame of a candle looks like
after the candle is blown out, for she could
not remember ever having seen such a thing.

After a while, finding that nothing more
happened, she decided on going into the
garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice!
when she got to the door, she found she had
forgotten the little golden key, and when
she went back to the table for it, she found
she could not possibly reach it: she could
see it quite plainly through the glass, and
she tried her best to climb up one of the legs
of the table, but it was too slippery; and when
she had tired herself out with trying, the
poor little thing sat down and cried.

“Come, there’s no use in crying like that!”
said Alice to herself, rather sharply. “ I advise
you to leave off this minute!” She generally
gave herself very good advice (though she
very seldom followed it), and sometimes she
10

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

scolded herself so severely as to bring tears Down the
into her eyes; and once she remembered ahs
trying to box her own ears for having cheated

herself in a game of croquet she was playing
against herself, for this curious child was very

fond of pretending to be two people. ‘‘ But

it’s no use now,” thought poor Alice, “ to pre-

tend to be two people! Why there’s hardly
enough of me left to make ove respectable

person!”
Soon her eye fell ona little glass box that

was lying under the table : she opened it, and
found in it a very small cake, on which the
words ‘“ EAT ME” were beautifully marked
in currants. ‘ Well, I'll eat it,” said Alice,
‘‘and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach
the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I
can creep under the door; so either way I'll
get into the garden, and I don’t care which
happens!”

She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to
herself, ‘‘ Which way ? Which way ?” holding
her hand on the top of her head to feel which
way it was growing, and she was quite sur-
prised to find that she remained the same size;
to be sure, this is what generally happens

Il

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Down the when one eats cake, but Alice had got so

es much into the way of expecting nothing but
out-of-the-way things to happen, that it
seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on
in the common way.

So she set to work, and very soon finished
off the cake.

x st % a:

CRAPLER. VI

a ae aes URIOUSER and_ curiouseri”
; cried Alice (she was so much sur-
Re EQ prised, that for a moment she
WSL quite forgot how to speak good
English); “now I’m opening out like the
largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye,
feet!” (for when she looked down at her feet,
they seemed to be almost out of sight, they
were getting so far off). ‘Oh, my poor little
feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes
and stockings for you now, dears? I’m sure 7
sha’n't be able! I shall be a great deal too
far off to trouble myself about you: you must
manage the best way you can—but I must
be kind to them,” thought Alice, “or perhaps
they won’t walk the way I want to go! Let
me see: I'll give them a new pair of boots
every Christmas.”
And she went on planning to herself how

13

Pool of

Tears

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Pool of she would manage it. ‘‘ They must go by the

Tears carrier,” she thought; “and how funny it'll
seem, sending presents to one’s own feet!
And how odd the directions will look!

Alice’s Right Foot, Esq.
Hearthrug,
near the Fender,
(with Alice’s love).

Oh dear, what nonsense I’m talking!”

Just then her head struck against the roof
of the hall: in fact she was now rather more
than nine feet high, and she at once took up
the little golden key and hurried off to the
garden door.

Poor Alice! It was as much as she could
do, lying down on one side, to look through
into the garden with one eye; but to get
through was more hopeless than ever: she
sat down and began to cry again.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself,”
said Alice, “a great girl like you” (she might
well say this), ‘“‘to go on crying in this way!
Stop this moment, I tell you!” But she went
on all the same, shedding gallons of tears,
until there was a large pool all round her,

14

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

about four inches #
deep and reaching
half down the hall.
After a time she
heard a little patter-
ing of feet in the
distance, and_ she
hastily dried her eyes
to see what was
coming. It was the
White Rabbit re-
turning, splendidly
dressed, with a pair
of white kid gloves
in one hand and a
large fan in the
other: he came trot-
ting along in a great
hurry, muttering to
himself as he came,
“Oh! the Duchess,
the Duchess! Oh!
won't she be savage :
if I’ve kept her wait- CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER
ino) SAlice:feltsso
desperate that she was ready to ask help of

15

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Pool of any one; so, when the Rabbit came near her,

sales began, in a low, timid voice, “If you
please, sir The Rabbit started violently,
dropped the white kid gloves and the fan, and
scurried away into the darkness as hard as he
could go.

Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as
the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself
all the time she went on talking! ‘“‘ Dear,
dear! How queer everything is to-day!
And yesterday things went on just as usual.
I wonder if I've been changed during the
night? Let me think: was I the same when
I got up this morning? I almost think I can
remember feeling a little different. But if
I’m not the same, the next question is, who
in the world am I? Ah, ¢ha?’s the great
puzzle!” And she began thinking over all
the children she knew that were of the same
age as herself, to see if she could have been
changed for any of them.

“T’m surexim not Ada? shevsaid star
her hair goes in such long ringlets, and mine
doesn’t go in ringlets at all; and I’m sure I
can’t be Mabel, for 1 knowall sorts of things,
and she, oh! she knows such a very little!

16

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

—_————

Besides, s/e's she, and /’7 I, and—oh dear, Pool of
how puzzling it all is! I'll try if I know all 7
the things I used to know. Let me see: four
times five is twelve, and four times six is
thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I
shall never get to twenty at that rate! How-
ever, the Multiplication Table doesn’t signify :

let's try Geography. London is the capital

of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome,

and Rome—no, ¢ha?’s all wrong, I’m certain |!

I must have been changed for Mabel! Tl

try and say ‘ How doth the little via

she crossed her hands on her lap as if she
were saying lessons, and began to repeat it,

but her voice sounded hoarse and strange,

and the words did not come the same as they
used to do :—

‘« How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

*“« How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiiing jaws |”

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Poolof ‘I’m sure those are not the right words,”
Tears said poor Alice, and her eyes filled with tears
again as she went on. ‘I must be Mabel,
after all, and I shall have to go and live in
that poky little house, and have next to no
toys to play with, and oh! ever so many
lessons to learn! No, I’ve made up my mind
about it; if ’m Mabel, I'll stay down here!
It'll be no use their putting their heads down
and saying, ‘Come up again, dear!’ I shall
only look up and say, ‘Whoam I then? Tell
me that first, and then, if I like being that
person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down
here till I’m somebody else ’—but, oh dear!”
cried Alice with a sudden burst of tears, ‘I
do wish they would put their heads down! I
am so very tired of being all alone here!”
As she said this she looked down at her
hands, and was surprised to see that she had
put on one of the Rabbit’s little white kid
gloves while she was talking. ‘‘ How can
I have done that?” she thought. ‘I must
be growing small again.” She got up and
went to the table to measure herself by it,
and found that, as nearly as she could guess,
she was now about two feet high, and was
18

»

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

going on shrinking rapidly : she soon found Pool of
out that the cause of this was the fan she was 7%”S
holding, and she dropped it hastily, just in

time to avoid shrinking away altogether.

“That was a narrow escape!” said Alice,
a good deal frightened at the sudden change,
but very glad to find herself still in existence ;
“and now for the garden!” and she ran with
all speed back to the little door: but alas!
the little door was shut again, and the little
golden key was lying on the glass table as
before, ‘‘and things are worse than ever,”
thought the poor child, ‘for I never was so
small as this before, never! And I declare it’s
too bad, that it is!”

As she said these words her foot slipped,
and in another moment, splash! she was up
to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was
that she had somehow fallen into the sea,
“and in that case I can go back by railway,”
she said to herself. (Alice had been to the
seaside once in her life, and had come to the
general conclusion, that wherever you go tc
on the English coast you find a number of
bathing machines in the sea, some children
digging in the sand with wooden spades, then

19

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Pool of a row of lodging houses, and behind them a

“4"S railway station.) However, she soon made
out that she was in the pool of tears which
she had wept when she was nine feet high.

“TI wish I hadn't cried so much!” said
Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her
way out. ‘‘I shall be punished for it now, I
suppose, by being drowned in my own tears !
That wzd/ be a quecr thing, to be sure!
However, everything is queer to-day.”

Just then she heard something splashing
about in the pool a little way off, and she
swam nearer to make out what it was: at
first she thought it must be a walrus or hip-
popotamus, but then she remembered how
small she was now, and she soon made out
that it was only a mouse that had slipped in
like herself.

‘Would it be of any use now,” thought
Alice, ‘‘to speak to this mouse? Everything
is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should
think very likely it can talk: at any rate.
there's no harm in trying.” So she began:
“() Mouse, do you know the way out of this
pool? I am very tired of swimming about
here, O Mouse!” (Alice thought this must
20

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

be the right way of speaking to a mouse;
she had never done such a thing before, but
she remembered having seen in her brother’s
Latin Grammar, ‘“‘ A mouse—of a mouse—to
a mouse—a mouse—O mouse!”) The Mouse
looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed
to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but
it said nothing.

“Perhaps it doesn’t understand English,”
thought Alice; ‘“‘I daresay it’s a French mouse,
come over with William the Conqueror.”
(For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice
had no very clear notion how long ago any-
thing had happened.) So she began again:
“Ou est ma chatte?” which was the first
sentence in her French lesson-book. The
Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water,

and seemed to quiver all over with fright.

“Oh, I beg your pardon!” cried Alice hastily,
afraid that she had hurt the poor animal's
feelings. ‘I quite forgot you didn’t like cats.”
“Not like cats!” cried the Mouse, in a
shrill, passionate voice. ‘‘ Would you like

cats if you were me?”
“Well, perhaps not,” said Alice in a sooth-
ing tone: “don’t be angry about it. And yet
c 2I

Pool o}

Tears

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Pool of I wish I could show you our cat Dinah: I
°s think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could
only see her. She is such adear quiet thing,”
Alice went on, half to herself, as she swam
lazily about in the pool, ‘and she sits purring
so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and
washing her face—and she is such a nice soft
thing to nurse—and she's sucha capital one
for catching mice oh, I beg your pardon!”
cried Alice again, for this time the Mouse was
bristling all over, and she felt certain it must
be really offended. ‘‘We won't talk about

her any more if you’d rather not.”

‘We, indeed!” cried the Mouse, who was
trembling down to the end of his tail. “As
if J would talk on such a subject! Our family
always hated cats: nasty, low, vulgar things!
Don’t let me hear the name again!”

“IT won't indeed!” said Alice, in a great
hurry to change the subject of conversation.
“Are you—are you fond—of—of dogs?”
The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on
eagerly: ‘There is such a nice little dog near
our house I should like to show you! A
little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh,
such long curly brown hair! And it'll fetch
22

The Pool of Tears

ALICE S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
things when you throw them, and it'll sit up
and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things
—I can’t remember half of them—and it
belongs to a farmer, you know, and he says
it’s so useful, it’s worth a hundred pounds!
He says it kills all the rats and—oh dear!”
cried Alice in a sorrowful tone, “ I’m afraid
- I’ve offended it again!” For the Mouse was
swimming away from her as hard as it could
go, and making quite a commotion in the
pool_as it went.

So she called softly after it, “‘ Mouse dear !
Do come back again, and we won’t talk about
cats or dogs either, if you don’t like them !”

When the Mouse heard this, it turned round
and swam slowly back to her: its face was quite
pale (with passion, Alice thought), and it said in
a low trembling voice, “ Let us get to the shore,
and then I'll tell you my history, and you'll
understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.”

It was high time to go, for the pool was
getting quite crowded with the birds and
animals that had fallen into it: there werea
Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and
several other curious creatures. Alice led the
way, and the whole party swam to the shore.

23

Pool of

Tears

A Caucus-
race and a

Long Tale.

GiArA ER Abbe
mem FI AY were indeed a queer-looking
XS3\ party that assembled on the bank
Sa) —the birds with draggled feathers,
SH the animals with their fur clinging
close to them, and all dripping wet, cross,
and uncomfortable.

The first question of course was, how to
get dry again: they had a consultation about
this, and after a few minutes it seemed quite
natural to Alice to find herself talking
familiarly with them, as if she had known
them all her life. Indeed, she had quite a
long argument with the Lory, who at last
turned sulky, and would only say, “I am
older than you, and must know better ;” and
this Alice would not allow without knowing
how old it was, and, as the Lory positively
refused to tell its age, there was no more to
be said.

24,

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a
person of authority among them, called out
“Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! S17
soon make you dry enough!” They all sat
down at once, in a large ring, with the
Mouse in the middle. Alice kept her eyes
anxiously fixed on it, for she felt sure she
would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry
very soon.

“Ahem!” said the Mouse with an im-
portant air. ‘Are you all ready? This is
the driest thing I know. Silence all round,
if you please! ‘William the Conqueror,
whose cause was favoured by the pope, was
soon submitted to by the English, who
wanted leaders, and had been of late much
accustomed to usurpation and conquest.
Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and
Northumbria—’ ”

“Ugh!” said the Lory, with a shiver.

“JT beg your pardon!” said the Mouse,
frowning, but very politely. ‘Did you
speak ?”

“Not I!” said the Lory hastily.

“TI thought you did,” said the Mouse,
“._T proceed. ‘Edwin and Morcar, the

25

A Caucus-
race anda

Long Tale

A Caucus-
raceanda
Long Tale

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

earls of Merciaand Northumbria, declared for
him: and even Stigand, the patriotic Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, found it advisable— ”

“Found what ?” said the Duck.

“Found 7/,” the Mouse replied rather
crossly: “of course you know what ‘it’
means.”

“JT know what ‘it’ means well enough,
when / find a thing,” said the Duck; ‘‘it’s
generally a frog or a worm. The question
is, what did the archbishop find ?” :

The Mouse did not notice this question,
but hurriedly went on, ‘‘‘—found it ad-
visable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet
William and offer him the crown. William’s
conduct at first was moderate. But the in-
solence of his Normans—’ How are you
getting on now, my dear?” it continued,
turning to Alice as it spoke.

“ As wet as ever,” said Alice in a melan-
choly tone; ‘‘doesn’t seem to dry me at all.”

“In that case,” said the Dodo solemnly,
rising to its feet, “I move that the meeting
adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more
energetic remedies ;

* Speak English |” -said thesaplet pea
26

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

don’t know the meaning of half those long
words, and, what’s more, I don’t believe you
do either!” And the Eaglet bent down its
head to hide a smile : some of the other birds
tittered audibly.

“What I was going to say,” said the
Dodo in an offended tone, ‘was that the
best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-
race,”

“What zs a Caucus-race?” said Alice ; not
that she much wanted to know, but the Dodo
had paused as if it thought that somebody
ought to speak, and no one else seemed
inclined to say anything.

“Why,” said the Dodo, ‘the best way
to explain it is to do it.” (And, as you might
like to try the thing yourself some winter
day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)

First it marked out a race-course, in a sort
of circle, (‘the exact shape doesn’t matter,”
it said,) and then all the party were placed
along the course, here and there. There was
no “One, two, three, and away,” but they
began running when they liked, and left
off when they liked, so that it was not easy
to know when the race was over. However,

27

A Caucus-
race and a

Long Tale

A Caucus-
race and a

Long Tale

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

when they had been running half an hour or
so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo
suddenly called ‘The race is over!” and |
they all crowded round it, panting, and ask-
ing ‘‘ But who has won?”

This question the Dodo could not answer
without a great deal of thought, and it stood
for a long time with one finger pressed upon
its forehead (the position in which you
usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of
him), while the rest waited in silence. At
last the Dodo said ‘‘ Averybody has won, and
ali must have prizes.”

“But who is to give the prizes?” quite
a chorus of voices asked.

“Why, she, of course,” said the Dodo,
pointing to Alice with one finger; and the
whole party at once crowded round her,
calling out in a confused way, ‘ Prizes!
Prizes |”

Alice had no idea what to do, and in
despair she put her hand in her pocket, and
pulled out a box of comfits (luckily the salt
water had not got into it), and handed them
round as prizes. There was exactly one a-
piece all round.

28

They all crowded round it, panting, and asking,
“But who has won?”

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“But she must have a prize herself, you
know,” said the Mouse.

Or course; “athe Dodo replied © very
gravely.

‘“What else have you got in your pocket ?”
it went on, turning to Alice.

“Only a thimble,” said Alice sadly.

‘‘ Hand it over here,” said the Dodo.

Then they all crowded round her once
more, while the Dodo solemnly presented the
thimble, saying ‘“We beg your acceptance
of this elegant thimble;” and, when it
had finished this short speech, they all
cheered.

Alice thought the whole thing very absurd,
but they all looked so grave that she did not
dare to jaugh; and, as she could not think
of anything to say, she simply bowed, and
took the thimble, looking as solemn as she
could.

The next thing was to eat the comfits ; this
caused some noise and confusion, as the
large birds complained that they could not
taste theirs, and the small ones choked and
had to be patted on the back. However, it
was over at last, and they sat down again in

20

A Caucus
race and a

Long Tale

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

A Caucus a ring, and begged the Mouse to tell them
ee a something more.

‘You promised to tell me your history,
you know,” said Alice, ‘““and why it is you
hate—C and D,” she added in a whisper, half
afraid that it would be offended again.

‘“Mine is a long and sad tale!” said the
Mouse, turning to Alice and sighing.

“Tt zs a long tail, certainly,” said Alice,
looking down with wonder at the Mouse's
tail; “but why do you call it sad?” And
she kept on puzzling about it while the
Mouse was speaking, so that her idea of
the tale was something like this :—

30

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

‘“ Fury said to
a mouse, That

he met in the
house, ‘ Let
us both go
to law: 7
will prose-
cuts you.—
Come, Vil
take no de-
nial: We
must have
the trial ;
For really
this morn-
ing I’ve
nothing
to do.’
Said the
mouse to
the cur,
‘Such a
trial, dear
sir, With
no jury
or judge,
would
be wast-
ing our
breath.’
‘T'll be

31

A Caucus
race and a
Long Tale

A Caucus-
race anda

Long Tale

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“You are not attending!” said the Mouse
to Alice severely. ‘‘What are you thinking
Ole

“T beg your pardon,” said Alice very
humbly: ‘‘you had got to the fifth bend,
I think ?”

“T had zot/” cried the Mouse, angrily.

“A knot!” said Alice, always ready to
make herself useful, and looking anxiously
about her.. ““Oh, doclletmme Help tosunde
it!”

“T shall do nothing of the sort,” said the
Mouse, getting up and walking away. ‘ You
insult me by talking such nonsense!”

“JT didn’t mean it!” pleaded poor Alice.
“But you're so easily offended, you know!”

The Mouse only growled in reply.

‘Please come back and finish your story! ”
Alice called after it. And the others all joined
in chorus, ‘‘ Yes, please do!” but the Mouse
only shook its head impatiently and walked
a little quicker.

“What a pity it wouldn’t stay!” sighed
the Lory, as soon as it was quite out of
sight ; and an old Crab took the opportunity
of saying to her daughter, ‘‘Ah, my dear!
32

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Let this be a lesson to you never to lose
your temper!” ‘Hold your tongue, Mal”
said the young Crab, a little snappishly.
“You're enough to try the patience of an
oyster!”

“JT wish I had our Dinah here, I know |
do!” said Alice aloud, addressing nobody in
particular. ‘ She’d soon fetch it back!”

‘And who is Dinah, if I might venture to
ask the question ?” said the Lory.

Alice replied eagerly, for she was always
ready to talk about her pet: ‘ Dinah’s our
cat. And she such a capital one for catching
mice, you ca’n’t think! And oh, I wish you
could see her after the birds! Why, she'll
eat a little bird as soon as look at it!”

This speech caused a remarkable sensation
among the party. Some of the birds hurried
off at once; one old Magpie began wrapping
itself up very carefully, remarking “I really
must be getting home; the night-air doesn’t
suit my throat!” and a Canary called out in
a trembling voice to its children ‘Come
away, my dears! It’s high time you were all
in bed!” On various pretexts they all moved
off, and Alice was soon left alone.

33

A Caucus-
race anda

Long Tale

A Caucus-
race and a

Long Tale

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

‘“T wish I hadn’t mentioned Dinah!” she
said to herself in a melancholy tone. ‘“‘ No-
body seems to like her, down here, and I’m
sure she’s the best cat in the world! Oh, my
dear Dinah! I wonder if I shall ever see you
any more!” And here poor Alice began to
cry again, for she felt very lonely and low-
spirited. In a little while, however, she again
heard a little pattering of footsteps in the
distance, and she looked up eagerly, half
hoping that the Mouse had changed his mind,
and was coming back to finish his story.

34

CHAPTER IV

AG ee Twas the White Rabbit, trotting The Rabbit
s Q slowly back again, and looking vias ie
Ya) anxiously about as it went, as if it
had lost something ; and she heard
it muttering to itself, ‘The Duchess! The
Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and
whiskers ! She'll get me executed, as sure as
ferrets are ferrets! Where caz I have dropped
them, I wonder?” Alice guessed in a moment
that it was looking for the fan and the pair of
white kid gloves, and she very good-naturedly
began hunting about for them, but they were
nowhere to be seen—everything seemed to
have changed since her swim in the pool, and
the great hall, with the glass table and the
little door, had vanished completely.

Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, as she
went hunting about, and called out to her in
an angry tone, “Why, Mary Ann, what

35

The Rabbit
sends 1n a

Little Bill

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

ave you doing out here? Run home this
moment, and fetch mea pair of gloves and a
fan! Quick, now!” And Alice was so much
frightened that she ran off at once in the
direction it pointed to, without trying to
explain the mistake it had made.

“ He took me for his housemaid,” she said
to herself as she ran. ‘‘ How surprised he'll
be when he finds out who I am! But I'd
better take him his fan and gloves—that is,
if I can find them.” As she said this, she
came upon a neat little house, on the door of
which was a bright brass plate with the name
“W. RABBIT” engraved upon it. She
went in without knocking, and hurried up
stairs, in great fear lest she should meet the
real Mary Ann, and be turned out of the
house before she had found the fan and
gloves.

‘““How queer it seems,” Alice said to her-
self, “‘ to be going messages for a rabbit! I
suppose Dinah'll be sending me on messages
next!” And she began fancying the sort of
thing that would happen: “ ‘Miss Alice!
Come here directly, and get ready for your
walk!’ ‘Coming in a minute, nurse! But
36

“Why, Mary Ann, what are you doing out here?”

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

I’ve got to watch this mouse-hole till Dinah
comes back, and see that the mouse doesn't
get out.’ Only I don’t think,” Alice went on,
“that they’d let Dinah stop in the house if it
began ordering people about like that!”

By this time she had found her way into a
tidy little room with a table in the window,
and on it (as she had hoped) a fan and two
or three pairs of tiny white kid gloves: she
took up the fan and a pair of the gloves, and
was just going to leave the room, when her
eye fell upon a little bottle that stood near
the looking-glass. There was no label this
time with the words ‘DRINK ME,” but
nevertheless she uncorked it and put it to her
lips. ‘I know something interesting is sure
to happen,” she said to herself, “ whenever I
eat or drink anything; so I'll just see what
this bottle does. I do hope it will make me
grow large again, for really I’m quiet tired of
being such a tiny little thing!”

It did so indeed, and much sooner than
she had expected: before she had drunk half
the bottle, she found her head pressing against
the ceiling, and had to stoop to save her neck
from being broken. She hastily put down

e af

The Rabbit
sends in a

Little Bill

The Rabbit
sends in a

Little Bill

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

the bottle, saying to herself ‘“That’s quite
enough—I hope I sha’n't grow any more—
As it is, I can’t get out at the door—I do
wish I hadn’t drunk quite so much!”

Alas! it was too late to wish that! She
went on growing, and growing, and very soon
had to kneel down on the floor: in another
minute there was not even room for this, and
she tried the effect of lying down with one
elbow against the door, and the other arm
curled round her head. Still she went on
growing, and, as a last resource, she put one
arm out of the window, and one foot up the
chimney, and said to herself ‘‘ Now I can do
no more, whatever happens. What wd/
become of me?”

Luckily for Alice, the little magic bottle
had now had its full effect, and she grew no
larger: still it was very uncomfortable, and,
as there seemed to be no sort of chance of
her ever getting out of the room again, no
wonder she felt unhappy.

“It was much pleasanter at home,” thought
poor Alice, ‘‘ when one wasn’t always growing
larger and smaller, and being ordered about by
mice and rabbits. I almost wish I hadn’t gone

38

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

down that rabbit-hole—and yet—and yet—
it’s rather curious, you know, this sort of life!
I do wonder what caz have happened to me!
When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that
kind of thing never happened, and now here
I am in the middle of one! There ought to
be a book written about me, that there ought |!
And when I grow up, I'll write one—but I’m
grown up now,” she added in a sorrowful
tone; ‘‘at least there’s no room to grow up
any more here.”

“But then,” thought Alice, “shall I ever
get any older than I am now? That'll be a
comfort, one way—never to be an old woman
—but then—always to have lessons to learn !
Oh, I shouldn’t like ¢that/”

“Oh, you foolish Alice!” she answered
herself. ‘How can you learn lessons in
here? Why, there’s hardly room for you,
and no room at all for any lesson-books !”

And so she went on, taking first one side
and then the other, and making quite a con-
versation of it altogether; but after a few
minutes she heard a voice outside, and
stopped to listen.

“Mary Ann! Mary Ann!” said the voice.

oO

The Rabbi
sends na

Little Bill

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

The Rabbit ‘‘ Fetch me my gloves this moment!” Then

sends in a

Little Bill

came a little pattering of feet on the stairs.
Alice knew it was the Rabbit coming to look
for her, and she trembled till she shook the
house, quite forgetting that she was now
about a thousand times as large as the Rab-
bit, and had no reason to be afraid of it.

Presently the Rabbit came up to the door,
and tried to open it; but, as the door opened
inwards, and Alice’s elbow was pressed hard
against it, that attempt proved a_ failure.
Alice heard it say to itself ‘“Then I'll go
round and get in at the window.”

“That you won't” thought Alice, and,
after waiting till she fancied she heard the
Rabbit just under the window, she suddenly
spread out her hand, and made a snatch in
the air. She did not get hold of anything,
but she heard a little shriek and a fall, anda
crash of broken glass, from which she con-
cluded that it was just possible it had fallen
into a cucumber-frame, or something of the
sort. |

Next came an angry voice—the Rabbit’s—
“Pat! Pat! Where are you?” And then
a voice she had never heard before, ‘ Sure

40

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

then I’m here! Digging for apples, yer
honour |”

‘Digging for apples, indeed!” said the
Rabbit angrily. ‘Here! Come and help
me out of f#is/” (Sounds of more broken
glass.)

“Now tell me, Pat, what’s that in the
window ?”

ESire,1tecdineapn,tyerchonour:’ (He
pronounced it ‘ arrum.”)

‘“An arm, you goose! Who ever saw one
that size? Why, it fills the whole window!”

‘Sure, it does, yer honour? but it’s an
arm for all that.”

‘Well, it’s got no business there, at any
rate: go and take it away!”

There was a long silence after this, and
Alice could only hear whispers now and then ;
such as, ‘“ Sure, I don’t like it, yer honour, at
all, at all!” ‘Do as I tell you, you coward!”
and at last she spread out her hand again,
and made another snatch in the air. This
time there were fwo little shrieks, and more
sounds of broken glass. ‘‘ What a number
of cucumber-frames there must be!” thought
Alice. ‘‘I wonder what they’ll do next! As

Al

The Rabbit
sends tn a

Little Bill .

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

————

The Rabbit for pulling me out of the window, I only wish

sends in a
Little Bill

they could! I’m sure / don’t wont to stay
in here any longer!”

She waited for some time without hearing
anything more: at last came a rumbling of
little cart-wheels, and the sound of a good
many voices all talking together: she made
out the words: ‘‘ Where’s the other ladder ?
—Why I hadn’t to bring but one; Bill’s got
the other—Bill! Fetch it here, lad !—Here,
put ‘em up at this corner—No, tie ‘em to-
gether first—they don’t reach half high enough
yet—Oh! they'll do:well enough; don’t be
particular—Here, Bill! catch hold of this
rope—Will the roof bear >—Mind that loose
slate—Oh, it’s coming down! Heads below!”
(a loud crash)—‘‘ Now, who did that ?>—It was
Bill, I fancy—Who’s to go down the chim-
ney >—Nay, 7 sha’n’t! You do it!—That1-
won't, then! Bill’s to go down—Here, Bill!
the master says you've to go down the
chimney!”

“Oh! So Bill’s got to come down the
chimney, has he?” said Alice to herself.
“Why, they seem to put everything upon
Bill{ I wouldn’t bein Bill’s place for a good
42

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
eee ee

deal: this fireplace is narrow, to be sure ; The Rabbit
but I ¢hink I can kick a little!” are
ittle Bill
She drew her foot as far down the chimney
as she could, and waited till she heard a little
animal (she couldn’t guess of what sort it
was) scratching and scrambling about in the
chimney close above her: then, saying to her-
self ‘‘ This is Bill,” she gave one sharp kick,
and waited to see what would happen next.
The first thing she heard was a general
chorus of “There goes Bill!” then the Rab-
bit’s voice alone—‘‘Catch him, you by the
hedge!” then silence, and then another con-
fusion of voices—‘ Hold up his head—
Brandy now—Don’t choke him—How was
it, old fellow? What happened to you? Tell
us all about it!”
At last came a little feeble, squeaking
voice, (‘‘ That’s Bill,” thought Alice,) “ Well,
I hardly know—No more, thank ye; I’m
better now—but I’m a deal too flustered to
tell you—all I know is, something comes at
me like a Jack-in-the-box, and up I goes like
a sky-rocket |”
“So you did, old fellow! ” said the others.
“We must burn the house down!” said

43

fLICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

The Rabbit the Rabbit’s voice. And Alice called out as

sends in a

Little Bill

loud as she could, “If you do, I'll set Dinah
at you!”

There was a dead silence instantly, and
Alice thought to herself “I wonder what
they w7/7 do next! If they had any sense,
they'd take the roof off.” After a minute or
two they began moving about again, and
Alice heard the Rabbit say ‘A barrowful
will do, to begin with.”

“A barrowful of what?” thought Alice.
But she had not long to doubt, for the next
moment a shower of little pebbles came
rattling in at the window, and some of them
hit her in the face. “‘ I’ll put a stop to this,”
she said to herself, and shouted out ‘‘ You'd
better not do that again!” which produced
another dead silence.

Alice noticed with some surprise that the
pebbles were all turning into little cakes as
they lay on the floor, and a bright idea came
into her) head)» HI "éat® one of these
cakes,” she thought, ‘‘it’s sure to make some
change in my size; and, as it can’t possibly
make me larger, it must make me smaller, |
suppose.”

44

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

So she swallowed one of the cakes, and was
delighted to find that she began shrinking
directly. As soon as she was small enough
to get through the door, she ran out of the
house, and found quite a crowd of little ani-
mals and birds waiting outside. The poor
little Lizard, Bill, was in the middle, being
held up by two guinea-pigs, who were giving
it something out of a bottle. They all made
a rush at Alice the moment she appeared ; but
she ran off as hard as she could, and soon
found herself safe in a thick wood.

“The first thing I’ve got to do,” said Alice
to herself, as she wandered about in the wood,
“is to grow to my right size again; and the
second thing is to find my way into that lovely
garden. I think that will be the best plan.”

It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt, and
very neatly and simply arranged; the only
difficulty was, that she had not the smallest
idea how to set about it; and, while she was
peering about anxiously among the trees, a
little sharp bark just over her head made her
look up in a great hurry.

An enormous puppy was looking sami at
her with large round eyes, and feebly stretch-

45

The Rabbit
sends in a

Little Bill

*

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
a a eee ee

The Rabbit ing out one paw, trying to touch her. ‘‘ Poor

sends 1n a

Little Bill

little thing!” said Alice, in a coaxing tone,
and she tried hard to whistle to it; but she
was terribly frightened all the time at the
thought that it might be hungry, in which
case it would be very likely to eat her up in
spite of all her coaxing.

Hardly knowing what she did, she picked
up a little bit of stick, and held it out to the
puppy; whereupon the puppy jumped into
the air off all its feet at once, with a yelp of
delight, and rushed at the stick, and made
believe to worry it; then Alice dodged behind
a great thistle, to keep herself from being run
over; and, the moment she appeared on the
other side, the puppy made another rush at
the stick, and tumbled head over heels in its
hurry to get hold of it; then Alice, thinking
it was very like having a game of play with a
cart-horse, and expecting every moment to be
trampled under its feet, ran round the thistle
again; then the puppy began a series of short
charges at the stick, running a little way for-
wards each time and a long way back, and
barking hoarsely all the while, till at last it
sat down a good way off, panting, with its

46

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

tongue hanging out of its mouth, and its
great eyes half shut.

This seemed to Alice a good opportunity
for making her escape ; so she set off at once,
and ran till she was quite tired and out of
breath, and till the puppy’s bark sounded
quite faint in the distance.

“And yet what a dear little puppy it was!”
said Alice, as she leant against a buttercup to
rest herself, and fanned herself with one of
the leaves. ‘I should have liked teaching it
tricks very much, if—if I’d only been the right
size to do it! Oh, dear! I’d nearly forgotten
that I’ve got to grow up again! Let me see
—how zs it to be managed? I suppose I
ought to eat or drink something or other ; but
the great question is, what?”

The great question certainly was, what?
Alice looked all round her at the flowers and
the blades of grass, but she could not see any-
thing that looked like the right thing to eat
or drink under the circumstances. There was
a large mushroom growing near her, about the
same height as herself; and, when she had
looked under it, and on both sides of it, and
behind it, it occurred to her that she might

47

The Rabbit
sends in a

Little Bill

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

The Rabbit as well look and see what was on the top
sends in a of it
Little Bill E i

She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and

peeped over the edge of the mushroom, and
her eyes immediately met those of a large
blue caterpillar, that was sitting on the top
with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long
hookah, and taking not the smallest notice of
her or of anything else.

48

CHAPTER V
owe, HE Caterpillar and Alice looked Advice
at each other for some time in ee e
: aierpillar
silence: at last the Caterpillar took
the hookah out of its mouth, and
addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.

“Who are you ?” said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a
conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, ‘I
hardly know, sir, just at present—at least |
know who I was when I got up this morning,
but I think I must have been changed several
times since then.”

“What do you mean by that?” said the
Caterpillar sternly. ‘ Explain yourself!”

“T can’t explain myself, I'm afraid, sir,”
said Alice, ‘“ because I’m not myself, you see.”

“T don’t see,” said the Caterpillar.

“Tm afraid I can’t put it more clearly,”
Alice replied very politely, “for I can’t under-

49

Advice
from a

Caterpillar

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
stand it myself to begin with; and being so
many different sizes in a day is very con-
fusing.”

“Tt isn’t,” said the Caterpillar.

“Well, perhaps you haven’t found it so
yet,” said Alice, ‘‘but when you have to turn
into a chrysalis—you will some day, you
know—and then after that into a butterfly, 1
should think you'll feel it a little queer, won’t
you?”

‘Not a bit,” said the Caterpillar.

“Well, perhaps your feelings may be dif-
ferent,’ said Alice; ‘all I know is, it would
feel very queer to me.”

“You!” said the Caterpillar contemptuously.
“Who are you ?”

Which brought them back again to the be-
ginning of the conversation. Alice felt a little
irritated at the Caterpillar’s making such very
short remarks, and she drew herself up and
said, very gravely, “I think you ought to tell
me who you are, first.”

‘““Why ?” said the Caterpillar.

Here was another puzzling question; and
as Alice could not think of any good reason,
and as the Caterpillar seemed to be in a
50

Advice from a Caterpillar

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

very unpleasant state of mind, she turned
away.

“Come back!” the Caterpillar called after
her. ‘I’ve something important to say!”

This sounded promising, certainly : Alice
turned and came back again.

“Keep your temper,” said the Caterpillar.

“Is that all?” said Alice, swallowing down
her anger as well as she could.

“No,” said the Caterpillar.

Alice thought she might as well wait, as
she had nothing else to do, and perhaps after
all it might tell her something worth hearing.
For some minutes it puffed away without
speaking, but at last it unfolded its arms,
took the hookah out of its mouth again, and
said, “So you think you're changed, do
you ?”

“I’m afraid I am, sir,” said Alice; ‘I can’t
remember things as I used—and I don’t keep
the same size for ten minutes together |”

“Can’t remember what things?” said the
Caterpillar.

“Well, I've tried to say ‘How doth the
little busy bee, but it all came different!”
Alice replied in a very melancholy voice.

51

Advice
froma
Caterpillai

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Advice “Repeat ‘ You ave old, Father William, ”
froma said the Caterpillar.
Caterpill.

we" Nice folded her hands, and began :—

“You are old, Father William,” the young man
said,
“ And your hair has become very white ;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head—
Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

“In my youth,” Father William replied to his son,
‘“‘T feared it might injure the brain;

But, now that I’m perfectly sure I have none, -
Why, I do it again and again.”

* You are old,” said the youth, “as I mentioned
before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat :
‘Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door—
Pray, what is the reason of that?”

“In my youth,” said the sage, as he shook his grey
locks,
“I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment —one shilling the box—-
Allow me to sell you a couple?”

52

ALICE S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“You are old,” said the youth, “and your jaws are Advice

too weak
For anything tougher than suet ;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the
beak—

Pray, how did you manage to do it?”

“In my youth,” said his father, ‘“‘I took to the law
And argued each case with my wife ;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my
jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life.”

“You are old,” said the youth, ‘one would hardly
suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose—
What made you so awfully clever?”

“JT have answered three questions, and that is
enough,”
Said his father ; “don’t give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff ?
Be off, or I’ll kick you down stairs!”

“That is not said right,” said the Cater-
pillar.

“Not guzfe right, I’m afraid,” said Alice,

E 5S

Srom a

Caterpillar

Advice
Sron a

Caterpillar

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

timidly; “some of the words have got
altered.”

“It is wrong from beginning to end,” said
the Caterpillar, decidedly, and therewas silence
for some minutes.

The Caterpillar was the first to speak.

‘What size do you want to be?” it asked.

“Oh, m not particular as to size,” Alice
hastily replied ; ‘‘only one doesn’t like chang-
ing so often, you know.”

‘““T don’t know,” said the Caterpillar.

Alice said nothing: she had never been so
much contradicted in all her life before, and
she felt that she was losing her temper.

“Are you content now?” said the Cater-
pillar.

“Well, I should like to be a #/e larger, sir,
if you wouldn’t mind,” said Alice: ‘three
inches is such a wretched height to be.”

“Tt is a very good height indeed!” said
the Caterpillar angrily, rearing itself upright
as it spoke (it was exactly three inches high).

“But I’m not used to it!” pleaded poor
Alice in a piteous tone. And she thought to
herself, “I wish the creatures wouldn’t be so
easily offended !”

54

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

a

ee

“You'll get used to it in time,” said the Advice
Caterpillar; and it put its hookah into its ee
mouth and began smoking again.

This time Alice waited patiently until it
chose to speak again. In a minute or two
the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its
mouth and yawned once or twice, and shook
itself. Then it got down off the mushroom,
and crawled away into the grass, merely re-
marking as it went, “One side will make you
grow taller, and the other side will make you
grow shorter.”

“One side of what? The other side of
what ?”” thought Alice to herself.

“Of the mushroom,” said the Caterpillar,
just as if she had asked it aloud; and in
another moment it was out of sight.

Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the
mushroom for a minute, trying to make out
which were the two sides of it; and as it was
perfectly round, she found this a very difficult
question. However, at last she stretched
her arms round it as far as they would go,
and ‘broke off a bit of the edge with each
hand.

“And now which is which?” she said to

D5

Advice
from a
Caterpillar

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

herself, and nibbled a little of the right-hand
bit to try the effect : the next moment she felt
a violent blow underneath her chin: it had
struck her foot !

She was a good deal frightened by this very

AGH Wp) Z a
CY 7»), WZ: ys: Z ij
KYLE

sudden change, but she felt that there was no
time to be lost, as she was shrinking rapidly;
so she set to work at once to eat some of the
other bit. Her chin was pressed so closely
against her foot that there was hardly room
to open her mouth; but she did it at last, and
managed to swallow a morsel of the left-hand
bit.

* co * * *

56

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

——¥

‘Come, my head’s free at last!” said Alice
in a tone of delight, which changed into alarm
-in another moment, when she found that her
shoulders were nowhere to be found: all she
could see, when she looked down, was an
immense length of neck, which seemed to rise
like a stalk out of a sea of green leaves that
lay far below her.

“What can all that green stuff be?” said
Alice. ‘And where have my shoulders got
to? And oh, my poor hands, how is it I
can’t see you ?” She was moving them about
as she spoke, but no result seemed to follow,
except a little shaking among the distant
green leaves.

As there seemed to be no chance of getting
her hands up to her head, she tried to get her
head down to them, and was delighted to find
that her neck would bend about easily in any
direction, like a serpent. She had just suc-
ceeded in curving it down into a graceful
zigzag, and was going to dive in among the
leaves, which she found to be nothing but
the tops of the trees under which she
had been wandering, when a sharp hiss
made her draw back in a hurry: a large

57

Advice

froma

Caterpillar

Advice
jroma

Caterpillar

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

pigeon had flown into her face, and was
beating her violently with its wings.

“Serpent!” screamed the Pigeon.

“Tm wzot a serpent!” said Alice indig-
nantly. ‘ Letanealoned®

‘‘Serpent, I say again!” repeated the
Pigeon, but in a more subdued tone, and
added with a kind of a sob, “I’ve tried every
way, and nothing seems to suit them!”

“TI haven't the least idea what you're
talking about,” said Alice.

‘‘T’ve tried ‘the roots of treesand Mi ve
tried banks, and I’ve tried hedges,” the Pigeon
went on, without attending to her ; “‘ but those
serpents! There’s no pleasing them !”

Alice was more and more puzzled, but she
thought there was no use in saying anything
more till the Pigeon had finished.

“As if it wasn’t trouble enough hatching
the eggs,” said the Pigeon ; ‘‘but T must be
on the look-out for serpents night and day!
Why, I haven't had a wink of sleep these
three weeks |”

“T’m very sorry you’ve been annoyed,”
said Alice, who was beginning to see its
meaning.

58

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“And just as I’d taken the highest tree in
the wood,” continued the Pigeon, raising its
voice to a shriek, ‘and just as I was thinking
I should be free of them at last, they must
needs come wriggling down from the sky!
Ugh, Serpent!”

“But I’m of a serpent, I tell you!” said
micen onic ma .

“Well! What are you?” said the Pigeon.
“T can see you're trying to invent some-
thing!”

“J__I’m a little girl,” said Alice, rather
doubtfully, as she remembered the number of
changes she had gone through that day.

“ A likely story indeed!” said the Pigeon
in a tone of the deepest contempt. ‘I've
seen a good many little girls in my time, but
never ove with such aneck as that! No, no!
You're a serpent; and there’s no use denying
it. I suppose you'll be telling me next that
you never tasted an egg!”

“T have tasted eggs, certainly,” said Alice,
who was a very truthful child; ‘‘but little
girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do,
you know.”

“TJ don’t believe it,” said the Pigeon ; ‘‘ but

| 61

Advice

froma

Caterpillar

Advice
froma

Caterpillar

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

if they do, why then they’re a kind of serpent,
that’s all I can say.”

This was such a new idea to Alice, that
she was quite silent for a minute or two, .
which gave the Pigeon the opportunity of
adding, ‘“‘ You're looking for eggs, I know
that well enough ; and what does it matter
to me whether you're a little girl or a ser-
pent ?”

“Tt matters a good deal to me,” said Alice
hastily; ‘“ but I’m not looking for eggs, as it
happens; and if I was, I shouldn’t want
yours: 1 don’t like them raw.”

‘Well, be off, then!” said the Pigeon in a
sulky tone, as it settled down again into its
nest. Alice crouched down among the trees
as well as she could, for her neck kept getting
entangled among the branches, and every
now and then she had to stop and untwist it.
After a while she remembered that she still
held the pieces of mushroom in her hands,
and she set to work very carefully, nibbling
first at one and then at the other, and grow-
ing sometimes taller and sometimes shorter,
until she had succeeded in bringing herself
down to her usual height.

62

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

It was so long since she had been anything
near the right size, that it felt quite strange
at first; but she got used to it in a few
minutes, and began talking to herself, as
usual. ‘Come, there’s half my plan done
now! How puzzling all these changes are!
I’m never sure what I’m going to be, from
one minute to another! However, I’ve got
back to my right size: the next thing is, to
get into that beautiful garden—how zs that
to be done, I wonder?” As she said this,
she came suddenly upon an open place, with
a little house in it about four feet high.
“Whoever lives there,” thought Alice, ‘it'll
never do to come upon them ¢#zs size: why,
I should frighten them out of their wits!”
So she began nibbling at the right-hand
bit again, and did not venture to go near the
house till she had brought herself down to
nine inches high.

63

Advice

froma

Caterpillar

Pig and (9

Pepper

GHAPTLER. Vi

4) what to do next, when suddenly a
4 footman in livery came running
out of the wood—(she considered him to bea
footman because he was in livery : otherwise,
judging by his face only, she would have
called him a fish) —and rapped loudly at the
door with his knuckles. It was opened by
another footman in livery, with a round face
and large eyes like a frog ; and both footmen,
Alice noticed, had powdered hair that curled
all over their heads. She felt very curious
to know what it was all about, and crept a
little way out of the wood to listen.

The Fish-Footman began by producing
from under his arm a great letter, nearly
as large as himself, and this he handed over
to the other, saying, in a solemn tone, “ For

64

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

—_———_

the Duchess. An invitation from the Queen
to play croquet.” The Frog-Footman re-
peated, in the same solemn tone, only
changing the order of the words a little,
‘From the Queen. An invitation for the
Duchess to play croquet.”

Then they both bowed low, and their curls
got entangled together.

Alice laughed so much at this, that she
had to run back into the wood for fear of
their hearing her; and, when she next
peeped out, the Fish-Footman was gone,
and the other was sitting on the ground near
the door, staring stupidly up into the sky.

Alice went timidly up to the door and
knocked.

“There’s no use in knocking,” said the
Footman, ‘‘and that for two reasons. First,
because I’m on the same side of the door as
you are; secondly, because they're making
such a noise inside, no one could possibly
hear you.” And certainly there was a most
extraordinary noise going on within—a con-
stant howling and sneezing, and every now
and then a great crash, as if a dish or kettle
nad been broken to pieces.

65

Pig and
Pepper

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Pigand ‘‘Please, then,” said Alice, ““how am I to
Pepe Set ica

‘There might be some sense in your knock-
ing,” the Footman went on without attending
to her, ‘‘if we had the door between us. For
instance, if you were zzs¢de, you might knock,
and I could let you out, you know.” He was
looking up into the sky all the time he was
speaking, and this Alice thought decidedly
uncivil. ‘But perhaps he can’t help it,” she
said to herself: ‘‘his eyes are so very nearly
at the top of his head. But at any rate he
might answer questions. How am I to get
in?” she repeated aloud.

‘‘T shall sit here,” the Footman remarked,
“ till to-morrow

At this moment the door of the house
opened, and a large plate came skimming
out, straight at the Footman’s head : it just
grazed his nose, and broke to pieces against
one of the trees behind him.

i or next day, maybe,” the Footman
continued in the same tone, exactly as if
nothing had happened.

“ How am I to get in?” asked Alice again
in a louder tone.

66

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“ Are you to get in at all?” said the Foot- Pig and
man. “ That’s the first question, you know.” Pie

er

TT
r\

a
K
atl
ie

tO

ad i wf
SF Ten
J

A
}

|

It was, no doubt: only Alice did not
like to be told so. “It’s really dreadful,”
she muttered to herself, “the way all the

67

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Pigand creatures argue. It’s enough to drive one
shes a of crazy |”

The Footman seemed to consider this a
good opportunity for repeating his remark,
with variations. ‘I shall sit here,” he said,
‘on and off, for days and days.”

‘But what am J/ to do?” said Alice.

“Anything you like,” said the Footman,
and began whistling.

‘Oh, there’s no use in talking to him,”

said Alice desperately: ‘‘he’s perfectly
idiotic!” And she opened the door and
went in.

The door led right into a large kitchen,
which was full of smoke from one end to the
other: the Duchess was sitting on a three-
legged stool in the middle, nursing a baby;
the cook was leaning over the fire, stirring a
large cauldron which seemed to be full of
soup.

‘“There’s certainly too much pepper in that
soup!” Alice said to herself, as well as she
could for sneezing.

There was certainly too much of it in the
air. Even the Duchess sneezed occasionally ;

and the baby was sneezing and howling alter-
68

ALICE S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

ae

BB OE
nately without a moment's pause. The only
things in the kitchen that did not sneeze, were
the cook, and a large cat which was sitting on
the hearth and grinning from ear to ear.

“Please would you tell me,” said Alice a
little timidly, for she was not quite sure
whether it was good manners for her to speak
first, “why your cat grins like that?”

“Tt’s a Cheshire cat,’ said the Duchess,
“and that’s why. Pig!”

She said the last word with such sudden
violence that Alice quite jumped ; but she saw
in another moment that it was addressed to
the baby, and not to her, so she took courage,
and went on again:

“T didn’t know that Cheshire cats always
grinned ; in fact, I didn’t know that cats could
grin.
“They all can,” said the Duchess ; ‘‘and
most of ’em do.”

“T don’t know of any that do,” Alice said
very politely, feeling quite pleased to have got
into a conversation.

“You don’t know much,” said the Duchess;
“and that’s a fact.”

Alice did not at all like the tone of this

F ; 69

”

Pig and
Pepper

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Pig and remark, and thought it would be as well to

Peper introduce some other subject of conversation.
While she was trying to fix on one, the cook
took the cauldron of soup off the fire, and at
once set to work throwing everything within
her reach at the Duchess and the baby—the
fire-irons came first; then followed a shower
of saucepans, plates, and dishes. The Duchess
took no notice of them even when they hit
her; and the baby was howling so much
already, that it was quite impossible to say
whether the blows hurt it or not.

“Oh, please mind what you're doing!”
cried Alice, jumping up and down in an
agony of terror. ‘‘Oh, there goes his Dreczous
nose”; as an unusually large saucepan flew
close by it, and very nearly carried it off.

‘If everybody minded their own business,”
the ‘Duchess said in a hoarse growl, “ the
world would go round a deal faster than it
does.”

‘Which would zof be an advantage,” said
Alice, who felt very glad to get an opportunit:’
of showing off a little of her knowledge.
“Just think what work it would make with
the day and night! You see the earth takes

70

An unusually large saucepan flew close by it, and
very nearly carried 1 off

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

twenty - four hours to turn round on its Pig and
axis iM se
“Talking of axes,” said the Duchess, “chop
off her head.”
Alice glanced rather anxiously at the cook,
to see if she meant to take the hint; but the
cook was busily engaged in stirring the soup,
and did not seem to be listening, so she ven-
tured to go on again: ‘“‘ Twenty-four hours, I
think, or is it twelve? I :
“Oh, don’t bother me,” said the Duchess ;
“T never could abide figures !” And with that
she began nursing her child again, singing
a sort of lullaby to it as she did so, and giving
it a violent shake at the end of every line:

“Speak roughly to your little boy,
And beat him when he sneezes:
He only does it to annoy,
Because he knows it teases.”

CHORUS

(In which the cook and the baby joined):
“Wow! wow! wow!”

While the Duchess sang the second verse of
the song, she kept tossing the baby violently
wt

ALICE S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Pig and upand down, and the poor little thing howled
Peper co that Alice could hardly hear the words:

‘“T speak severely to my boy,
I beat him when he sneezes ;
For he can thoroughly enjoy
The pepper when he pleases!”

CHoRUS.

‘“ Wow! wow! wow!”

‘Here! you may nurse it a bit if you like!”
the Duchess said to Alice, flinging the baby
at her as she spoke. “I must go and get
ready to play croquet with the Queen,” and
she hurried out of the room. The cook threw
a frying-pan after her as she went out, but it
just missed her.

Alice caught the baby with some difficulty,
as it was a queer-shaped little creature, and
held out its arms and legs in all directions,
“just like a star-fish,” thought Alice. The
poor little thing was snorting like a steam-
engine when she caught it, and kept doubling
itself up and straightening itself out again, so
that altogether, for the first minute or two, it
was as much as she could do to hold it.

72

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

As soon as she had made out the proper Px and
way of nursing it, (which was to twist it up 7?"
into a knot, and then keep tight hold of its
right ear and left foot, so as to prevent its
undoing itself,) she carried it out into the
open air. “If I don’t take this child away
with me,” thought Alice, ‘‘they’re sure to kill
it in a day or two: wouldn’t it be murder to
leave it behind?” She said the last words
out loud, and the little thing grunted in reply
(it had left off sneezing by this time). ‘“ Don’t
grunt,” said Alice; ‘‘that’s not at all a proper
way of expressing yourself.”

The baby grunted again, and Alice looked
very anxiously into its face to see what was
the matter with it. There could be no doubt
that it had a very turn-up nose, much more
like a snout than a real nose; also its eyes
were getting extremely small for a baby: alto-
gether Alice did not like the look of the thing
at all. ‘But perhaps it was only sobbing,”
she thought, and looked into its eyes again,
to see if there were any tears.

No, there were no tears. “If you're going
to turn into a pig, my dear,” said Alice,
seriously, ‘Ill have nothing more to do

ies

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Pig and with you. Mind now!” The poor little

Peper thing sobbed again (or grunted, it was im-
possible to say which), and they went on
for some while in silence.

Alice was just beginning to think to her-
self, “Now, what am I to do with this
creature when I get it home?” when it
grunted again, so violently, that she looked
down into its face in some alarm. This time
there could be zo mistake about it: it was
neither more nor less than a pig, and she felt
that it would be quite absurd for her to carry
it any further.

So she set the little creature down, and
felt quite relieved to see it trot quietly away
into the wood. “If it had grown up,” she
said to herself, ‘it would have made a dread-
fully ugly child: but it makes rather a hand-
some pig, I think.” And she began think-
ing over other children she knew, who might
do very well as pigs, and was just saying to
herself, ‘if one only knew the right wav to
change them ” when shewasa little startled
by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough
of a tree a few yards off.

The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice.
74

It grunted again so violently that she looked down
into its face im some alarm

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

It looked good-natured, she thought: still it Pig and
had very long claws and a great many teeth, Pepper

SSNS DY

a
yy
Y

——_s
=
N\

KASS

so she felt that it ought to be treated with
espect.

‘Cheshire Puss,” she began, rather timidly,
as she did not at all know whether it would
like the name : however, it only grinned a little
wider. ‘Come, it’s pleased so far,” thought
Alice,and she went on. ‘ Would you tell me
please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you
want to get to,” said the Cat

de

Pig and
Pepper

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

‘“‘T don’t much care where ’ said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which wy you
go,” said the Cat.

re so long as I get somewhere,” Alice
added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the
Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

Alice felt that this could not be denied,
so she tried another question. ‘“ What sort of
people live about here?”

“In that direction,” the Cat said, waving
its right paw round, “lives a Hatter: and
in ¢ha¢ direction,” waving the other paw,
“lives a Macch Hare. Visit either you like:
they're both mad.”

“But I don’t want to go among mad
people,” Alice remarked.

‘Qh, you ca’n't help that,” said the Cat:
‘“we'reall mad here. I’mmad. You're mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said
mlice:

“You must’ be,” said “the"Gat; “or#yvou
wouldn’t have come here.”

Alice didn’t think that proved it at all;
however, she went on. ‘And how do you
know that you’re mad ?”

76

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
———————

“To begin with,” said the Cat, “a dog’s
not mad. You grant that?”

‘‘T suppose so,” said Alice.

“Well, then,” the Cat went on, “you see
a dog growls when it’s angry, and wags its
tail when it’s pleased. Now / growl when
I’m pleased, and wag my tail when I’m angry.
Therefore I’m mad.”

“7 call it purring, not growling,” said
Alice.

“Call it what you like,” said the Cat.
“Do you play croquet with the Queen to-
day’

“1 should like it very much,” said Alice,
“but I haven't been invited yet.”

“You'll see me there,” said the Cat and
vanished.

Alice was not much surprised at this, she
was getting so used to queer things happen-
ing. While she was looking at the place
where it had been, it suddenly appeared
again.

“ By-the-bye, what became of the baby ?”
said the Cat. “I'd nearly forgotten to ask.”

“It turned into a pig,” Alice quietly said,
just as if it had come back in a natural way.

at

Pig and
Pepper

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Pigand “I thought it would,” said the Cat, and
Pepber vanished again.

Alice waited a little, half expecting to see
it again, but it did not appear, and after a
minute or two she walked on in the direction
in which the March Hare was said to live.
“‘T’ve seen hatters before,” she said to herself ;
“the March Hare will be much the most
interesting, and perhaps as this is May, it
won't be raving mad—at least not so mad as
it was in March.” As she said this, she
looked up, and there was the Cat again,
sitting on the branch of a tree.

‘Did you say pig, or fig?” said the Cat.

“T said pig,” replied Alice; ‘and I wish
you wouldn’t keep appearing and vanishing
so suddenly: you make one quite giddy.”

“All right,” said the Cat ; and this time it
vanished quite slowly, beginning with the
end of the tail, and ending with the grin,
which remained some time after the rest of it
had gone.

“Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a
grin,” thought Alice; ‘but a grin without a
cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw
in all my life.”

78

y ‘
(ay
“al Me)

\ i)

\

Hi
|

el re
AM ff oH if i
H j Kt Wy)

is

eo 7 ae

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

7 She had not gone much farther before she

came in sight of the house of the March
Hare: she thought it must be the right house,
because the chimneys were shaped like ears
and the roof was thatched with fur. It was
so large a house, that she did not like to go
nearer till she had nibbled some more of the
left-hand bit of mushroom, and raised herself,
to about two feet high: even then she walked
up towards it rather timidly, saying to herself,
“Suppose it should be raving mad after all!
I almost wish I'd gone to see the Hatter
instead {°*’

Pig and
Pepper

A Mad
Tea-party

CHAPIER Vil

To TIE RE was a table set out under
a tree in front of the house, and
ye) the March Hare and the Hatter
4 were having tea at it: a Dormouse
was sitting between them, fast asleep, and
the other two were using it as a cushion
resting their elbows on it, and talking over
its head. ‘‘ Very uncomfortable for the Dor-
mouse,” thought Alice; ‘‘only as it’s asleep,
suppose it doesn’t mind.”

The table was a large one, but the three
were all crowded together at one corner of it.
“No room! No room!” they cried out when
they saw Alice coming. ‘“ There’s plenty of
room!” said Alice indignantly, and she sat
down in a large arm-chair at one end of the
table.

‘Have some wine,” the March Hare said
in an encouraging tone.

82

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

-

Alice looked all round the table, but there
was nothing on it but tea. “I don't see any
wine,” she remarked.

“There isn’t any,” said the March Hare.

“Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer
it,” said Alice angrily.

“Tt wasn’t very civil of you to sit down
without being invited,” said the March Hare

“T didn’t know it was your table,” said
Alice; “it’s laid for a great many more than
threes

“Vour hair wants cutting,” said the Hatter.
He had been looking at Alice for some time
with great curiosity, and this was his first
speech.

“You should learn not to make personal
remarks,” Alice said with some severity ;
‘sits very rude.”

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on
hearing this; but all he sada was “Why is a
raven like a writing-desk ?”

“Come, we shall have some fun now!”
thought Alice. “I’m glad they've begun
asking riddles.—I believe I can guess that,”
she added aloud.

“Do you mean that you think you can

83

Sed

A Mad
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A Mad
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ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

find out the answer to it?” said the March
Hare.

‘Exactly so,” said Alice.

“Then you should say what you mean,”
the March Hare went on.

‘IT do,” Alice hastily replied ; ‘‘at least—
at least I mean what I say—that’s the same
thing, you know.”

‘Not. tle-same thing a bit!” said the
Hatter. ‘“ Why, you might just as well say
that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as
‘I eat what I see’!”

“You might just as well say,” added the
March Hare, “that ‘I like what I get’ is the
same thing as ‘I get what I like’! ”

“You might just as well say,” added the
Dormouse, which seemed to be talking in his
sleep, ‘that ‘I breathe when I sleep’ is the
same thing as ‘I sleep when I breathe’!”

“Tt zs the same thing with you,” said the
Hatter; and here the conversation dropped,
and the party sat silent for a minute, while
Alice thought over all she could remember
about ravens and writing-desks, which wasn’t
much.

The Hatter was the first to break the
34

A Mad Tea-Party

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

silence. ‘‘ What day of the month is it?” he 4A Mad
said, turning to Alice: he had taken his 7°?”
watch out of his pocket, and was looking at

it uneasily, shaking it every now and then,

and holding it to his ear.

Alice considered a little, and then said
ime fourth.”

“Two days wrong!” sighed the Hatter.
“T told you butter would not suit the works |”
he added, looking angrily at the March Hare.

“Tt was the Jes¢ butter,” the March Hare
meekly replied.

“Ves, but some crumbs must have got in
as well,” the Hatter grumbled: “‘you shouldn't
have put it in with the bread-knife.”

The March Hare took the watch and looked
at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup
of tea, and looked at it again: but he could
think of nothing better to say than his first
remark, “ It was the des¢ butter, you know.”

Alice had been looking over his shoulder
with some curiosity. ‘What a funny watch |”
she remarked. “It tells the day of the month,
and doesn’t tell what o'clock it is !”

“Why should it?” muttered the Hatter.
“Does your watch tell you what year it is?”
85

G

A Mad
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“Of course not,” Alice replied very readily :
‘but that’s because it stays the same year for
such a long time together.”

‘“Which is just the case with mzne,” said
the Hatter.

Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter’s
remark seemed to have no meaning in it, and
yet it was certainly English. ‘I don’t quite
understand,” she said, as politely as she
could. |

‘The Dormouse is asleep again,” said the
Hatter, and he poured a little hot tea upon its
nose.

The Dormouse shook its head impatiently,
and said, without opening its eyes, ‘“‘Of course,
of course; just what I was going to remark
myself.”

‘““Have you guessed the riddle yet?” the
Hatter said, turning to Alice again.

‘No, I give it up,’ Alice replied: ‘ what’s
the answer ?”

“T haven't the slightest idea,” said the
Hatter.

“Nor I,” said the March Hare.

Alice sighed wearily. ‘I think you might
do something better with the time,” she said,
86

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“than wasting it asking riddles with no
answers.”

“Tf you knew Time as well as I do,” said
the Hatter, ‘you wouldn’t talk about wasting
wt. Its him.”

“T don’t know what you mean,” said Alice.

“Of course you don’t!” the Hatter said,
tossing his head contemptuously. “I daresay
you never spoke to Time!”

“Perhaps not,” Alice cautiously replied:
“but I know I have to beat time when I
learn music.”

“ Ah! that accounts for it,” said the Hatter.
“He won't stand beating. Now, if you only
kept on good terms with him, he’d do almost
anything you liked with the clock. For in-
stance, suppose it were nine o'clock in the
morning, just time to begin lessons: you'd
only have to whisper a hint to Time, and
round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-
past one, time for dinner |”

(“I only wish it was,” the March Hare said
to itself in a whisper.)

“That would be grand, certainly,” said
Alice thoughtfully: “but then—I shouldn't
be hungry for it, you know.”

87

A Mad
Tea-party

ALICE S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

-

A mad ‘Not at first, perhaps,’ said the Hatter:
Tea-parly «but you could keep it to half-past one as
long as you liked.”
“Ts that the way you manzge?’” Alice
asked.
The Hatter shook his head mournfully.
“Not I!” he replied. ‘ We quarrelled last
March——just before 4e went mad, you
know (pointing with his teaspoon to the
March Hare), ‘‘it was at the great concert
given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to
sing

)

‘Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at !’

You know that song, perhaps ?”
‘“‘T’ve heard something like it,” said Alice.
“Tt goes on, you know,” the Hatter con-
tinued, ‘in this way :—

‘Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle

>”

Here the Dormouse shook itself, and began
singing in its sleep ‘7 wnkle, twinkle, twinkle,
twinkle ” and went on so long that they
had to pinch it to make it stop.

88

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“Well, I’d hardly finished the first verse,”
said the Hatter, “‘when the Queen jumped up
and bawled out ‘He’s murdering the time!
Off with his head !’”

“How dreadfully savage!” exclaimed
Alice.

‘‘ And ever since that,” the Hatter went on
in a mournful tone, “ he won’t do a thing I
ask! It’s always six o’clock now.”

A bright idea came into Alice’s head. “Is
that the reason so many tea-things are put
out here?” she asked.

“Ves, that’s it,” said the Hatter with a
sigh: ‘‘it’s always tea-time, and we've no
time to wash the things between whiles.”

“Then you keep moving round, I sup-
pose ?” said Alice.

“Exactly so,” said the Hatter: ‘‘as the
things get used up.”

“But what happens when you come to
the beginning again?” Alice ventured to
ask.

“Suppose we change the subject,” the
March Hare interrupted, yawning. ‘I’m
getting tired of this. I vote the young lady
tells us a story.”

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ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

‘“T’m afraid I don’t know one,” said Alice,
rather alarmed at the proposal.

‘Then the Dormouse shall!” they both
cried. ‘‘Wake up, Dormouse!” And they
pinched it on both sides at once.

The Dormouse slowly opened his eyes. “I
wasn't asleep,” he said in a hoarse, feeble
voice: ‘I heard every word you fellows were
saying.”

“Tell us a story !” said the March Hare.

‘Yes, please do!” pleaded Alice.

‘And be quick about it,” added the Hatter,
“or you'll be asleep again before it’s done.”

‘‘Once upon a time there were three little
sisters,” the Dormouse began in a great
hurry; ‘“‘and their names were Elsie, Lacie,
and Tillie; and they lived at the bottom of a
well——”

‘What did they live on?” said Alice, who
always took a great interest in questions of
eating and drinking.

‘‘ They lived on treacle,” said the Dormouse,
after thinking a minute or two.

‘They couldn’t have done that, you know,”
Alice gently remarked; they'd have been
ill.”

90

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

—

‘So they were,” said the Dormouse ; “very
ill:”.

Alice tried a little to fancy to herself what
such an extraordinary way of living would be
like, but it puzzled her too much, so she went
on : “ But why did they live at the bottom of
a well?”

“Take some more tea,” the March Hare
said to Alice, very earnestly.

“T’ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an
offended tone, “so I can’t take more.”

“You mean you can't take /ess,” said the
Hatter; “it’s very easy to take move than
nothing.”

“ Nobody asked your opinion,” said Alice.

“Who's making personal remarks now ?”
the Hatter asked triumphantly.

Alice did not quite know what to say to
this : so she helped herself to some tea and
bread-and-butter, and then turned to the Dor-
mouse, and repeated her question. ‘ Why
did they live at the bottom of a well ?”

The Dormouse again took a minute or two
think about it, and then said, “It was a
treacle-well.”

“ There’s nosuch thing!” Alice was begin

QI

A Mad
Tea-party

A Mad
Tea-party

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

ning very angrily, but the Hatter and the
March Hare went “Sh! sh!” and the Dor-
mouse sulkily remarked: “If you can’t be
civil, you’d better finish the story for your-
self.”

‘No, «pleases go onl” » Alices-said™ very
humbly. “I won't interrupt you again. I
dare say there may be one.”

“One, indeed!” said the Dormouse in-
dignantly. However, he consented to go on.
‘And so these three little sisters—they were
learning to draw, you know a

“What did they draw ?” said Alice, quite
forgetting her promise.

‘‘ Treacle,” said the Dormouse, without
considering at all this time.

“JT want a clean cup,” interrupted the
Hatter: “let's all move one place on.”

He moved as he spoke, and the Dormouse
followed him: the March Hare moved into
the Dormouse’s place, and Alice rather un-
willingly took the place of the March Hare.
The Hatter was the only one who got any
advantage from the change: and Alice was a
good deal worse off than before, as the March
Hare had just upset the milk-jug into his plate.
92

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse
again, so she began very cautiously: “ But I
don’t understand. Where did they draw the
treacle from ?”

“You can draw water out of a water-well,”
said the Hatter; “so I should think you
could draw treacle out of a treacle-well—eh,
stupid |”

“ But they were zz the well,” Alice said to
the Dormouse, not choosing to notice this
last remark.

‘Of course they were,” said the Dormouse ;
“ well in.”

This answer so confused poor Alice that
she let the Dormouse go on for some time
without interrupting it.

“They were learning to draw,” the Dor-
mouse went on, yawning and rubbing its
eyes, for it was getting very sleepy; “ and
they drew all manner of things—everything
that begins with an M ~”

“ Why with an M ?” said Alice.

“Why not?” said the March Hare.

Alice was silent.

The Dormouse had closed its eyes by this
time, and was going off intoa dose ; but, on

93

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ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

being pinched by the Hatter, it woke up
again with alittle shriek, and went on: “
that begins with an M, such as mouse-traps,
and the moon, and memory, and muchness—
you know you say things are ‘much of a
inuchness ’—did you ever see such a thing as
a drawing of a muchness ?”

‘Really, now you ask me,” said Alice, very
much confused, “I don’t think :

‘Then you shouldn’t talk,” said the Hatter.

This piece of rudeness was more than Alice
could bear: she got up in great disgust and
walked off; the Dormouse fell asleep instantly,
and neither of the others took the least notice
of her going, though she looked back once
or twice, half hoping that they would call
after her: the last time she saw them, they
were trying to put the Dormouse into the
teapot.

‘““At any rate I'll never go ¢here again!”
said Alice as she picked her way through the
wood. ‘It’s the stupidest tea-party I ever
was at in all my life!”

Just as she said this, she noticed that one
of the trees had a door leading right into it.
“That's very curious!” she thought. ‘ But

94

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

everything’s curious to-day. I think I may
as well go in at once.” And in she went.

Once more she found herself in the long
hall, and close to the little glass table. ‘‘ Now
I'll manage better this time,’’ she said to her-
self, and began by taking the little golden
key, and unlocking the door that led into the
garden. Then she set towork nibbling at the
mushroom (she had kept a piece of it in her
pocket) till she was about a foot high: then
she walked down the little passage : and ¢hen
—she found herself at last in the beautiful
garden, among the bright flower-beds and the
cool fountains.

95

A Mad
Tea-parly

CHAPTERS Vd

LARGE rose-tree stood near the
vis entrance of the garden: the roses
growing on it were white, but there

were three gardeners at it, busily
painting them red. Alice thought this a very
curious thing, and she went nearer to watch
them, and just as she came up to them
she heard one of them say ‘“‘ Look out now,
Five! Don’t go splashing paint over me like
that.”

“T couldn't help it,” said Five,in a sulky
tone. ‘Seven jogged my elbow.”

On which Seven looked up and said, ‘‘That’s
right, Five! Always lay the blame on others!”

“ You'd better not talk!’ said Five. “I
heard the Queen say only yesterday you de-
served to be beheaded !’

“What for?” said the one who had first
spoken.

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The Queen’s
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ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“That's none of your business, Iwo!” said
Seven.

“Ves, it zs his business!” said Five. ‘And
I'll tell him—it was for bringing the cook
tulip-roots instead of onions.”

Seven flung down his brush, and had just
begun “ Well, of all the unjust things 4
when his eye chanced to fall upon Alice, as
she stood watching them, and he checked
himself suddenly: the others looked round
also, and all of them bowed low.

“Would you tell me,” said Alice, a little
timidly, “why you are painting those
roses ?”

Five and Seven said nothing, but looked
at Two. Two began ina low voice, ‘‘ Why,
the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to
have been a ved rose-tree, and we put a white
one in by mistake; and if the Queen was to
find it out, we should all have our heads cut
off, you know. So you see, Miss, we're doing
our best, afore she comes, to i ets CRIs
moment, Five, who had been anxiously look-
ing across the garden, called out ‘“ The Queen!
The Queen!” and the three gardeners instantly
threw themselves flat upon their faces. There

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Ground

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

TheQueen's Was a sound of many footsteps, and Alice
Croque looked round, eager to see the Queen.

First. came ten soldiers carrying clubs;
these were all shaped like the three gardeners,
oblong and flat, with their hands and feet at
the corners: next the ten courtiers; these
were ornamented all over with diamonds, and
walked two and two, as the soldiers did.
After these came the royal children; there
were ten of them, and the little dears came
jumping merrily along hand in hand, in
couples; they were all ornamented with hearts.
Next came the guests, mostly Kings and
Queens, and among them Alice recognised
the White Rabbit: it was talking in a hurried,
nervous manner, smiling at everything that
was said, and went by without noticing her.
Then followed the Knave of Hearts, carrying
the King’s crown on acrimson velvet cushion ;
and last of all this grand procession, came
THE KING AND QUEEN OF HEARTS.

Alice was rather doubtful whether she
ought not to lie down on her face like the
three gardeners, but she could not remember
ever having heard of such a ruie at pro-
cessions; ‘‘and besides, what would be the

95

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

—————

use of a procession,” thought she, “ if people
had to lie down upon their faces, so that they
couldn’t see it?” So she stood still where
she was, and waited.

When the procession came opposite to
Alice, they all stopped and looked at her, and
the Queen said severely, “ Who is this?”
She said it to the Knave of Hearts, who only
bowed and smiled in reply.

“Tdiot !” said the Queen, tossing her head
impatiently ; and turning to Alice, she went
on, “ What’s your name, child?”

“My name is Alice, so please your
Majesty,” said Alice very politely; but she
added, to herself, “Why, they’re only a pack
of cards, after all. I needn’t be afraid of
them |!”

“And who are ¢hese ?” said the Queen,
pointing to the three gardeners who were
lying round the rose-tree ; for, eyoursee, as
they were lying on their faces, and the
pattern on their backs was the same as the
rest of the pack, she could not tell whether
they were gardeners, or soldiers, or courtiers,
or three of her own children.

“How should J know?” said Alice, sur-

99

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ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

TheQueen's prised at her own courage. “ It’s no business
Croquet” of mine.”

The Queen turned crimson with fury, and,
after glaring at her for a moment like a
wild beast, screamed ‘Off with her head!
Off——’”

‘“Nonsense!” said Alice, very loudly and
decidedly, and the Queen was silent.

The King laid his hand upon her arm, and
timidly said ‘“‘ Consider my dear: she is only
a child!”

The Queen turned angrily away from him,
and said to the Knave “Turn them over!”

The Knave did so, very carefully, with one
foot.

“Get up!” ‘said the Queen, in ayishrie
loud voice, and the three gardeners instantly
jumped up, and began bowing to the King, the
Queen, the royal children, and everybody else.

“Leave off that!” screamed the Queen.
“You make me giddy.” And then, turning
to the rose-tree, she went on, “‘ What save
you been doing here?”

‘May it please your Majesty,” said Two,
in a very humble tone, going down on one
knee as he spoke, “ we were trying i
100

The Queen turned angrily away from lim and said
to the Knave, “Turn them over”

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“7 see!” said the Queen, who had mean-
while been examining the roses. “ Off with
their heads!” and the procession moved on,
three of the soldiers remaining behind to
execute the unfortunate gardeners, who ran
to Alice for protection.

“You shan’t be beheaded!” said Alice, and
she put them into a large flower-pot that
stood near. The three soldiers wandered
about for a minute or two, looking for them,
and then quietly marched off after the others.

“Are their heads off?” shouted the
Queen.

“Their heads are gone, if it please your
Majesty !” the soldiers shouted in reply.

“That's right |” shouted the Queen. “Can
you play croquet ?”

The soldiers were silent, and looked at
Alice, as the question was evidently meant
for her.

“Ves!” shouted Alice.

“Come on, then!” roared the Queen, and
Alice joined the procession, wondering very
much what would happen next.

“Tt’s—it’s a very fine day!” said a timid
voice at her side. She was walking by the

io 101

The Queen's
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The Queen's
Croquet-
Ground

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

White Rabbit, who was peeping anxiously
into her face.

“Very,” said Alice: ‘‘——where’s the
Duchess ?”

“Hush! Hush!” said the Rabbit in a low
hurried tone. He looked anxiously over his
shoulder as he spoke, and then raised himself
upon tiptoe, put his mouth close to her ear,
and whispered “She’s under sentence of
execution.”

‘What for?” said Alice.

‘Did you say ‘Whata pity !’?” the Rabbit
asked.

‘No, I didn’t,” said Alice: “I don’t think
it’s at alla pity. I said ‘What for?’”

‘‘ She boxed the Queen’s ears—’” the Rabbit
began. Alice gave a little scream of laughter.
“Oh, hush!” the Rabbit whispered in a
frightened tone. ‘The Queen will hear you!
You see she came rather late, and the Queen
said .

‘Get to your places!” shouted the Queen
in a voice of thunder, and people began
running about in all directions, tumbling up
against each other; however, they got settled
down in a minute or two, and the game
102

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

ener eee
began. Alice thought she had never seen TheQueen's
such a curious croquet-ground in all her life ; ee
it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were

live hedgehogs, the mallets

live flamingoes, and the ges

soldiers had to double Zi
themselves up and to stand
upon their hands and feet,
to make the arches.

The chief difficulty Alice
found at first was in
managing her flam-
ingo; she succeeded
in getting its body
tucked away, com-
fortably enough,
under her arm, with =
its legs hanging down, but Sy
generally, just she had got |
its neck nicely straightened out, and
was going to give the hedgehog a
blow with its head, it would twist
itself round and look up in her face, with
such a puzzled expression that she could
not help bursting out laughing: and when
she had got its head down, and was going to

103

pe a =
Z

The Queen's
Croquet-
Ground

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

begin again, it was very provoking to find that
the hedgehog had unrolled itself and was in the
act of crawling away: besides all this, there
was generally a ridge or a furrow in the way
wherever she wanted to send the hedge-hog to,
and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always
getting up and walking off to other parts of
the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion
that it was a very difficult game indeed.

The players all played at once without
waiting for turns, quarrelling all the while,
and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a
very short time the Queen was in a furious
passion, and went stamping about, and shout-
ing “ Off with his head!” or “ Off with her
head!” about once in a minute.

Alice began to feel very uneasy: to be
sure she had not as yet had any dispute with
the Queen, but she knew that it might happen
any minute, “and then,” thought she, “ what
would become of me? ‘They're dreadfully
fond of beheading people here: the great
wonder is that there’s any one left alive!”

She was looking about for some way of
escape, and wondering whether she could get
away without being seen, when she noticed
104

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
ee es

a curious appearance in the air: it puzzled
her very much at first, but, after watching it
a minute or two, she made it out to be agrin,
and she said to herself “It’s the Cheshire
Cat: now I shall have somebody to talk to.”

“ How are you getting on?” said the Cat,
as soon as there was mouth enough for it
to speak with.

Alice waited till the eyes appeared, and
then nodded. “It’s no use speaking to it,”
she thought, ‘‘till its ears have come, or at
least one of them.” In another minute the
whole head appeared, and then Alice put
down her flamingo, and began an account of
the game, feeling very glad she had some one
to listen to her. The Cat seemed to think
that there was enough of it now in sight, and
no more of it appeared.

“T don’t think they play atall fairly,” Alice
began, in rather a complaining tone, ‘and
they all quarrel so dreadfully one can’t hear
oneself speak—and they don’t seem to have
any rules in particular ; at least, if there are,
nobody attends to them—and you've no idea
how confusing it is all the things being alive ;
for instance, there’s the arch I’ve got to go

105

The Queen's
Croquet-
Ground

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

The Queen's through next walking about at the other end

hb of the ground—and I should have croqueted
the Queen’s hedgehog just now, only it ran
away when it saw mine coming!”

“How do you like the Queen?” said the
Cat in a low voice.

* Not at all,” said Alice: “she’s so exes
tremely Just then she noticed that the
Queen was close behind her listening : so she
went on, ‘——likely to win, that it’s hardly
worth while finishing the game.”

The Queen smiled and passed on.

“ Who ave you talking to?” said the King,
coming up to Alice, and looking at the Cat’s
head with great curiosity.

“It’s a friend of mine—a Cheshire Cat,”
said Alice: ‘allow me to introduce it.”

106

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
PS Sk Sn EY ahs oo Chis aE eel am ean ovat

“T don’t like the look of it at all,” said the
King: “however, it may kiss my hand if it
likes.”

“Td rather not,” the Cat remarked.

“Don’t be impertinent,” said the King,
“and don’t look at me like that!” He got
behind Alice as he spoke.

“A cat may look at a king,” said Alice.
“Tye read that in some book, but I don't
remember where.”

“Well, it must be removed,” said the King
very decidedly, and he called to the Queen,
who was passing at the moment, “My
dear! I wish you would have this cat
removed !”

The Queen had only one way of settling
all difficulties, great or small. “‘ Off with his
head!” she said, without even looking
round.

“Tl fetch the executioner myself,” said the
King eagerly, and he hurried off.

Alice thought she might as well go back
and see how the game was going on, as she
heard the Queen’s voice in the distance,
screaming with passion. She had already
heard her sentence three of the players to

107

The Queen's
Croquet-
Ground

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

The Queen's be executed for having missed their turns,

Croquet-
Ground

and she did not like the look of things at all,
as the game was in such confusion that she
never knew whether it was her turn or not.
So she went in search of her hedgehog.

The hedgehog was engaged in a fight with
another hedgehog, which seemed to Alice
an excellent opportunity for croqueting one
of them with the other: the only difficulty
was, that her flamingo was gone across to
the other side of the garden, where Alice
could see it trying in a helpless sort of way
to fly up into one of the trees.

By the time she had caught the flamingo
and brought it back, the fight was over, and
both the hedgehogs were out of sight: “ but
it doesn’t matter much,” thought Alice, ‘‘as
all the arches are gone from this side of the
ground.” So she tucked it under her arm,
that it might not escape again, and went
back for a little more conversation with her
friend.

When she got back to the Cheshire Cat,
she was surprised to find quite a large
crowd collected round it: there was a dispute
going on between the executioner, the King,
108

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

and the Queen, who were all talking at once, TheQueen's
while all the rest were quite silent, and hie 8
looked very uncomfortable. oe

‘The moment Alice appeared, she was
appealed to by all three to
settle the question, and they
repeated their arguments to
her, though, as they
all spoke at once, she
found it very hard in-
deed to make out ex-
actly what they said.

The executioner’s argu-
ment was, that you couldn't
cut off a head unless there
was a body to cut it off
from: that he had never had to do such a
thing before, and he wasn’t going to begin at
his time of life.

The King’s argument was, that anything
that had a head could be beheaded, and
that you weren't to talk nonsense.

The Queen’s argument was, that if some-
thing wasn’t done about it in less than no
time, she’d have everybody executed all
round. (It was this last remark that had

109

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

TheQueen’s made the whole party look so grave and
Croque- anxious.)

Alice could think of nothing else to say but
“It belongs to the Duchess: you’d better ask
her about it.”

‘“‘She’s in prison,” the Queen said to the
executioner; ‘fetch her here.” And the
executioner went off like an arrow.

The Cat’s head began fading away the mo-
ment he was gone, and by the time he had
come back with the Duchess, it had entirely
disappeared ; so the King and the executioner
ran wildly up and down looking for it, while
the rest of the party went back to the game.

CHAPTER IX

sOU can’t think how glad I am to The Mock
ASQ\ see you again, you dear old thing!” ee

#4) said the Duchess, as she tucked

-* her arm affectionately into Alice’s,
and they walked off together.

Alice was very glad to find her in such a
pleasant temper, and thought to herself that
perhaps it was only the pepper that had made
her so savage when they met in the kitchen.

“When /’m a Duchess,” she said to herself
(not in a very hopeful tone though), “I won't
have any pepper in my kitchen af a. Soup
does very well without—Maybe it’s always
pepper that makes people hot-tempered,” she
went on, very much pleased at having found
out a new kind of rule, “and vinegar that
makes them sour—and camomile that makes
them bitter —and — barley-sugar and such
things that make children sweet-tempered. I
rig

The Mock
Turtle’s
Story

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

only wish people knew ¢haf: then they
wouldn’t be so stingy about it, you know a

She had quite forgotten the Duchess by
this time, and was a little startled when she
heard her voice close to: her ear. “Youre
thinking about something, my dear, and that
makes you forget to talk. I can’t tell you
just now what the moral of that is, but I shall
remember it in a bit.”

‘Perhaps it hasn’t one,” Alice ventured to
remark.

“Tut, tut, childtk?. said the Duchess
“Every thing’s got a moral, if only you can
find it.” And she squeezed herself up closer
to Alice’s side as she spoke.

Alice did not much like her keeping so
close to her: first, because the Duchess was
very ugly; and secondly, because she was
exactly the right height to rest her chin on
Alice’s shoulder, and it was an uncomfortably
sharp chin. However, she did not like to be
rude, so she bore it as well as she could.
“The game’s going on rather better now,” she
said, by way of keeping up the conversation
a little. |

“’Tis so,” said the Duchess: “and the
112

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

moral of that is—‘ Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love, that
makes the world go round!’”

‘Somebody said,” Alice whispered, “ that
it’s done by everybody minding their own
business |”

“Ah, well! It means much the same
thing,” said the Duchess, digging her sharp
little chin into Alice’s shoulder as she added,
“and the moral of ¢at is—‘ Take care of the
sense, and the sounds will take care of them-
selves.’”

“How fond she is of finding morals in
things!” Alice thought to herself.

“T dare say you're wondering why I don’t
put my arm round your waist,” the Duchess
said after a pause: “the reason is, that I’m
doubtful about the temper of your flamingo.
Shall I try the experiment ?”

‘He might bite,” Alice cautiously replied,
not feeling at all anxious to have the experi-
ment tried.

“Very true,” said the Duchess: ‘ flamin-
goes and mustard both bite. And the moral
of that is—‘ Birds of a feather flock together.”

“Only mustard isn’t a bird,” Alice re-
marked.

113

The Mock
Turtle’s
Story

The Mock
Turile’s
Story

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“Right; as: usual,” “said ether Wuchess:
“what a clear way you have of putting
things !.”

“Tt’s a mineral, I ¢hkzzk,” said Alice.

“Of course it is,’ said the Duchess, who
seemed ready to agree to everything that
Alice said: ‘“‘there’s a large mustard-mine
near here. And the moral of that is—‘ The
more there is of mine, the less there is of

ode)

yours.
“Oh, I know!” exclaimed Alice, who had
not attended to this last remark. “Its a

vegetable. It doesn’t look like one, but it is.”

‘‘T quite agree with you,” said the Duchess;
“and the moral of that is—‘Be what you
would seem to be’—or if you'd like it put
more simply—‘ Never imagine yourself not
to be otherwise than what it might appear to
others that what you were or might have
been was not otherwise than what you had
been would have appeared to them to be
otherwise.’ ”

“T think I should understand that better,”
Alice said very politely, ‘‘if I had it written
down: but I can’t quite follow it as you
Say it.”

114

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“That's nothing to what I could say
if I chose,” the Duchess replied, in a pleased
tone.

“Pray don’t trouble yourself to say it any
longer than that,” said Alice.

‘Oh, don’t talk about trouble!” said the
Duchess. ‘I make you a present of every-
thing I’ve said as yet.”

“A cheap sort of present!” thought Alice.
“Tm glad they don’t give birthday presents
like that!” But she did not venture to say
it out loud.

“Thinking again?” the Duchess asked
with another dig of her sharp little chin.

“T’ve a right to think,” said Alice sharply,
for she was beginning to feel a little worried.

“Just about as much right,” said the
Duchess, “as pigs have to fly; and the
renee

But here, to Alice’s great surprise, the
Duchess’s voice died away, even in the middle
of her favourite word “moral,” and the arm
that was linked into hers began to tremble.
Alice looked up, and there stood the Queen
in front of them, with her arms folded, frown-
ing like a thunderstorm.

iis

The Mock
Turtle’s
Story

The Mock
Turtle’s
Story

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

‘A fine day, your Majesty!” the Duchess
began in a low, weak voice.

“ Now, I give you fair warning,’ shouted the
Queen, stamping on the ground as she spoke ;
“either you or your head must be off, and that
in about half no time! Take your choice!”

The Duchess took her choice, and was
gone in a moment.

‘“Let’s go on with the game,” the Queen
said to Alice; and Alice was too much
frightened to say a word, but slowly followed
her back to the croquet-ground.

The other guests had taken advantage of
the Queen’s absence, and were resting in the
shade: however, the moment they saw her,
they hurried back to the game, the Queen
merely remarking that a moment’s delay
would cost them their lives.

All the time they were playing the Queen
never left off quarrelling with the other
players, and shouting ‘‘ Off with his head!”
or “ Off with her head!” Those whom she
sentenced were taken into custody by the
soldiers, who of course had to leave off being
arches to do this, so that by the end of half
an hour or so there were no arches left, and
116

The Queen never left off quarreling with the other
players, and shouting “Off with his head!”
or “Off with her head!”

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

all the players, except the King, the Queen, The Mock
and Alice, were in custody and under sentence atts
of execution.

Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath,
and said to Alice, “‘ Have you seen the Mock
Tuttle yet?” |

“No,” said Alice. “I don’t even know
what a Mock Turtle is.”

“Tt’s the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made
from,’ said the Queen.

“T never saw one, or heard of one,” said Alice.

‘©Come on then,” said the Queen, “ and he
shall tell you his history.”

As they walked off together, Alice heard
the King say in a low voice, to the company
generally, “ You are all pardoned.” “Come,
that's a good thing!” she said to herself, for
she had felt quite unhappy at the number of
executions the Queen had ordered.

They very soon came upon a Gryphon,
lying fast asleep in the sun. (If you don't
know what a Gryphon is, look at the picture.)
“Up, lazy thing!” said the Queen, ‘and
take this young lady to see the Mock Turtle,
and to hear his history. I must go back and
see after some executions I have ordered,”

I . 117

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

The Mock and she walked off, leaving Alice alone with

Turtle’s

Story

the Gryphon. Alice did not quite like the
look of the creature, but on the whole she
thought it would be quite as safe to stay with
it as to go after that savage Queen: so she
waited.

The Gryphon sat up and rubbed its eyes:
then it watched the Queen till she was out of
sight: then it chuckled. ‘What fun!” said
the Gryphon, half to itself, half to Alice.

“What zs the fun?” said Alice.

“Why, she,” said the Gryphon. “It's
all her fancy, that: they never executes
nobody, you know. Come on!”

‘ Everybody = says ‘come! omly qjhere?
thought Alice, as she went slowly after it:
“T never was so ordered about in my life,
never |”

They had not gone far before they saw the
Mock Turtle in the distance, sitting sad and
lonely on a little ledge of rock, and, as they
came nearer, Alice could hear him sighing
as if his heart would break. She pitied him
deeply. ‘‘What is his sorrow?” she asked
the Gryphon, and the Gryphon answered,
very nearly in the same words as before,
118

S

Bs
=
LY

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“Tt’s all his fancy, that: he hasn't got no
sorrow, you know. Come on!”

So they went up to the Mock Turtle,
who looked at them with large eyes full of
tears, but said nothing.

“This here young lady,” said the Gryphon,
‘she wants to know your history, she do.”

“T’l1 tell it her,” said the Mock Turtle ina
deep, hollow tone; “sit down, both of you,
and don’t speak a word till I’ve finished.”

So they sat down, and nobody spoke for
some minutes. Alice thought to herself, “TI
don’t see how he can every finish, if he
doesn’t begin.” But she waited patiently.

“ Once,” said the Mock Turtle at last, with
a deep sigh, “I was a real Tartles;

These words were followed by a very long
silence, broken only by an occasional exclama-
tion of “Hjckrrh!” from the Gryphon, and the
constant heavy sobbing of the Mock Turtle.
Alice was very nearly getting up and saying
“Thank you, sir, foryour interesting story,” but
she could not help thinking there szws¢ be more
to come, so she sat still and said nothing.

“When we were little,” the Mock Turtle
went on at last, more calmly, though still

121

The Mock
Turtle’s
Story

The Mock
Turtles
Story

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

sobbing a little now and then, “we went to
school in the sea. The master was an old
Turtle—we used to call him Tortoise :

“Why did you call him Tortoise, if he
wasn't one?” Alice asked.

“We called him Tortoise because he
taught us,” said the Mock Turtle angrily:
“really you are very dull!”

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself for
asking such a simple question,” added the
Gryphon ; and then they both sat silent and
looked at poor Alice, who felt ready to sink
into the earth. At last the Gryphon said to
the Mock Turtle, ‘Drive on, old fellow.
Don’t be all day about it!” and he went on
in these words:

‘Yes, we went to school in the sea, though
you mayn’t believe it 4

“JT never said I didn’t!” interrupted
Aliee:

“You did,” said the Mock Turtle.

“Hold your tongue!” added the Gryphon,
before Alice could speak again. The Mock
Turtle went on :—

“We had the best of educations—in fact,
we went to school every day °
122

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

-“ [ve been toa day-school, too,” said Alice;
“you needn't be so proud as all that.”

“With extras 2?” asked the Mock Turtle a
little anxiously.

“Ves,” said Alice, ‘‘ we learned French and
music.”

“ And washing?” said the Mock Turtle.

“Certainly not!” said Alice indignantly.

“Ah! then yours wasn’t a really good
school,” said the Mock Turtle in a tone of
relief. ‘ Now at ours they had at the end of
the bill, ‘French, music, and washing—
exttas

“Vou couldn’t have wanted it much,” said
Alice; ‘living at the bottom of the sea.”

“T couldn’t afford to learn it,” said the
Mock Turtle with a sigh. ‘I only took the
regular course.”

“What was that?” inquired Alice.

“ Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin
with,” the Mock Turtle replied; ‘‘and then the
different branches of Arithmetic—Ambition,
Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”

“T never heard of ‘ Uglification,’” Alice
ventured to say. ‘‘ What is it?”

The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in

123

The Mock
Turtle’s
Story

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

The Mock surprise. ‘‘ Never heard of uglifying!” it
ies exclaimed. ‘‘ You know what to beautify is,
I suppose 2?”

“Yes,” said Alice doubtfully: ‘it means—
to—make—anything—prettier.”

‘Well, then,” the Gryphon went on, “if
you don’t know what to uglify is, you are a
simpleton.”

Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any
more questions about it, so she turned to the
Mock Turtle and said, ‘What else had you
to learn ?”

‘Well, there was Mystery,” the Mock
Turtle replied, counting off the subjects on
his flappers, ‘“—Mystery, ancient and modern,
with Seaography: then Drawling—the Draw-
ling-master was an old conger-eel, that used
to come once a week: /e taught us Drawling,
Stretching, and Fainting in Coils.”

“What was that like?” said Alice.

‘Well, I can’t show it you myself,” the
Mock Turtle said: “I’m too stiff. And the
Gryphon never learnt it.”

“Hadn't time,” said the Gryphon: ‘J went
to the Classical master, though. He was an
old crab, Ze was.”

124

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“I never went to him,” the Mock Turtle
said with a sigh: “he taught Laughing and
Grief, they used to say.”

‘So he did, so he did,” said the Gryphon,
sighing in his turn; and both creatures hid
their faces in their paws.

“And how many hours a day did you do
lessons?” said Alice, in a hurry to change
the subject.

“Ten hours the first day,” said the Mock
Turtle: ‘nine the next, and so on.”

‘What a curious plan!” exclaimed Alice.

‘“That’s the reason they’re called lessons,”
the Gryphon remarked : “ because they lessen
from day to day.”

This was quite a new idea to Alice, and she
thought over it a little before she made her
next remark. ‘Then the eleventh day must
have been a holiday.”

“Of course it was,” said the Mock Turtle.

“ And how did you manage on the twelfth?”
Alice went on eagerly.

“That’s enough about lessons,” the Gryphon
interrupted in a very decided tone: “tell her
something about the games now.’

125

The Mock
Turtles
Story

ine Lobster (fopy

Quadrille

GHARTERcx

waS€e\T1F Mock Turtle sighed deeply,
and drew the back of one flapper
=>\\ across his eyes. He looked at
“% Alice, and tried to speak, but, for a
minute or two, sobs choked his voice. ‘‘ Same
as if he had a bone in his throat,” said the
Gryphon : and it set to work shaking him and
punching him in the back. At last the Mock
Turtle recovered his voice, and, with tears
running down his cheeks, went on again:

‘““You may not have lived much under the
sea—” (“I haven't,” said Alice) “and perhaps
you were never even introduced to a lobster—”
(Alice began to say “I once tasted ” bit
checked herself hastily, and said ‘‘No, never”
‘so you can have no idea what a delightful
thing a Lobster Quadrille is!”

“No, indeed,” said Alice. ‘‘ What sort of
a dance is it ?”

126

ALICE S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“Why,” said the Gryphon, ‘‘you first form The Lobster
into a line along the sea-shore é eases
“Two lines!” cried the Mock Turtle,
“ Seals, turtles, and soon; then, when you've
cleared the jelly-fish out of the way 5
“ That generally takes some time,” inter-
rupted the Gryphon.
“vou advance twice——"
“Bach with a lobster as a partner!” cried
the Gryphon.
“Of course,” the Mock Turtle said: ‘ad-
vance twice, set to partners
“change lobsters, and retire in same
order,” continued the Gryphon.
‘Then, you know,” the Mock Turtle went
on, “you throw the e
“The lobsters!” shouted the Gryphon,
with a bound into the air.
“__as far out to sea as you can
“Swim after them!” screamed the
Gryphon.
“Turn a somersault in the sea!” cried the
Mock Turtle, capering wildly about.
“Change lobsters again!” yelled the
Gryphon.
“Back to land again, and—that’s all the
7 |

The Lobster
Quadrille

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

first figure,” said the Mock Turtle, suddenly
dropping his voice; and the two creatures,
who had been jumping about like mad things
all this time, sat down again very sadly and
quietly, and looked at Alice.

“It must be a very pretty dance,” said
Alice, timidly.

‘Would you like to see a little of it?”
said the Mock Turtle.

‘“Very much indeed,” said Alice.

‘Come, let’s try the first figure!” said the
Mock Turtle to the Gryphon. ‘‘ We can do
it without lobsters, you know. Which shall
sing 2”

“Oh, you sing,” said the Gryphon. “ I’ve
forgotten the words.”

So they began solemnly dancing round
and round Alice, every now and then treading
on her toes when they passed too close, and
waving their forepaws to mark the time, while
the Mock Turtle sang this, very slowly and
sadly :—

“Will you walk a little faster?” said a whiting toa
snail,

“There's a porpoise close behind us, and he’s
treading on my tail.

128

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all The Lobster
advance! Quadrille
They are waiting on the shingle—will you come and
join the dance?
Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you
join the dance?
Wilt you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, won't
you join the dance ?

‘You can really have no notion how delightful it
will be,
When they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters,
out to sea!”
But the snail replied : “‘ Too far, too far!” and gave
a look askance—
Said he thanked the whiting kindly, but he wouid
not join the dance.
Would not, could not, would not, could not, would
not join the dance,
Would not, could not, would not, could not, could
not join the dance.

«‘ What matters it how far we go?” his scaly friend
replied ;

“There is another shore, you know, upon the other
side.

The further off from England the nearer is to
France—

Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and
join the dance.

129

The Lobster
Quadrille

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you
join the dance?

Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, won’t you
join the dance? ”

“Thank you, it’s a very interesting dance
to watch,” said Alice, feeling very glad that
it was over at last: ‘‘and I do so like that
curious song about the whiting!”

“Oh, as to the whiting,” said the Mock
Turtle, ‘‘ they—you’ve seen them, of course ?”

“Yes,” said Alice, ‘I’ve often seen them
at dinn ” she checked herself hastily.

‘“T don’t know where Dinn may be,” said
the Mock Turtle, “‘ but if you’ve seen them so
often, of course you know what they’re like.”

“I believe so,” Alice replied thoughtfully.
“They have their tails in their mouths—and
they’re all over crumbs.”

‘You're wrong about the crumbs,” said the
Mock Turtle: ‘crumbs would all wash off in
the sea. But they Zave their tails in their
mouths ; and the reason is—” here the Mock
Turtle yawned and shut his eyes. ‘Tell her
about the reason and all that,” he said to the
Gryphon.

130

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

‘“The reason is,” said the Gryphon, “that The Lobster
they would go with the lobsters to the dance. Crewe
So they got thrown out to sea. So they had
to fall a long way. So they got their tails
fast in their mouths. So they couldn't get
them out again. That's all.”

“Thank you,” said Alice. “It’s very in-
teresting. I never knew so much about a
whiting before.”

“TJ can tell you more than that, if you like,”
said the Gryphon. “ Do you know why it’s
called a whiting ?”

“TI never thought about it,” said Alice.
“Why?”

“ Tt does the boots and shoes,” the Gryphon
replied very solemnly.

Alice was thoroughly puzzled. ‘‘ Does the
boots and shoes!” she repeated in a wonder-

ing tone.
“Why, what are your shoes done with?”
said the Gryphon. ‘I mean, what makes

them so shiny?”

Alice looked down at them, and considered
a little before she gave her answer. ‘“‘ They're
done with blacking, I believe.”

“Boots and shoes under the sea,” the Gry-

13]

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

The Lobster phon went on in a deep voice, “ are done with

Quadrille

whiting. Now you know.”

“And what are they made of ?” Alice asked
in a tone of great curiosity.

“Soles and eels, of course,” the Gryphon
replied rather impatiently: “any shrimp could
have told you that.”

“Tf I'd been the whiting,” said Alice, whose
thoughts were still running on the song, “I'd
have said to the porpoise, ‘ Keep back, please:
we don’t want you with us!’”

“They were obliged to have him with them,”
the Mock Turtle said: “no wise fish would
go anywhere without a porpoise.”

“Wouldn't it really?” said Alice in a tone
of great surprise.

“Of course not,” said the Mock Turtle:
“why, if a fish came to me, and told me he
was going a journey, I should say, ‘With
what porpoise ?’”

“Don’t you mean ‘purpose’ ?” said Alice.

“IT mean what I say,” the Mock Turtle
replied in an offended tone. And the Gryphon
added, ‘“‘Come, let’s hear some of your ad-
ventures.”

“T could tell you my adventures—beginning
132

eee ner enteinaneetie mncemencneats csebiaesanl . s . ean t

merase gs md
|
|

The Mock Turtle drew a long breath and said,
“That's very curious”

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

from this morning,” said Alice a little timidly : The Lobster
“but it’s no use going back to yesterday, be- let
cause I was a different person then.”
“Explain all that,” said the Mock Turtle.
“No, no! The adventures first,” said the
Gryphon in an impatient tone: “ explanations
take such a dreadful time.”
So Alice began telling them her adventures
from the time when she first saw the White
Rabbit. She was a little nervous about it
just at first, the two creatures got so close to
her, one on each side, and opened their eyes
and mouths so very wide, but she gained
courage as she went on. Her listeners were
perfectly quiet till she got to the part about
her repeating “ You are old, Father W: illiam,”
to the Caterpillar, and the words all coming
different, and then the Mock Turtle drew
a long breath, and said, ‘That's very
curious.”
“It’s all about as curious as it can be,” said
the Gryphon.
“Tt all came different!” the Mock Turtle
repeated thoughtfully. “I should like to
hear her repeat something now. Tell her. to
begin.” He looked at the Gryphon as if he
| 133

K,

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

SS

The Lobster thought it had some kind of authority over

Quadrille

Alice.

“Stand up and repeat ‘’7%s the voice of
the sluggard,” said the Gryphon.

‘How the creatures order one about, and
make one repeat lessons!” thought Alice.
“IT might as well be at school at once.”
However, she got up, and began to repeat it,
but her head was so full of the Lobster
Quadrille, that she hardly knew what she
was Saying, and the words came very queer
indeed :—

‘“°’Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him
declare,

‘You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my
hair.’

As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose

Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his
toes.

When the sands are all dry, he is gay as a lark,

And will talk in contemptuous tones of the Shark :

But, when the tide rises and sharks are around,

His voice has a timid and tremulous sound.”

‘That's different from what / used to say
when I was a child,” said the Gryphon.

“Well, 7 never heard it before,” said the
134

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Mock Turtle: ‘but it sounds uncommon The Lobster
nonsense.” DHanE
Alice said nothing; she had sat down
with her face in her hands, wondering if
anything would ever happen in a natural way
again.
“T should like to have it explained,” said
the Mock Turtle.
‘“She ca’n’t explain it,” hastily said the

Gryphon. ‘Go on with the next verse.”
“But about his toes?” the Mock Turtle
persisted. ‘‘ How cow/d he turn them out

with his nose, you know?”

“Tt’s the first position in dancing,” Alice
said; but was dreadfully puzzled by the
whole thing, and longed to change the sub-
ject.

‘Go on with the next verse,” the Gryphon
repeated: “it begins ‘/ passed by his gar-
den.”

Alice did not dare to disobey, though she
felt sure it would all come wrong, and she
went on in a trembling voice :

“T passed by his garden, and marked, with one eye,
How the Owl and the Panther were sharing a

pie:
135

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

The Lobster The Panther took pie-crust, and gravy, and meat,
Quadrille hile the Owl had the dish as its share of the treat.
When the pie was all finished, the Owl, as a boon,
Was kindly permitted to pocket the spoon :
While the Panther received
knife and fork with a growl,
And concluded the banquet
by: 36

“What zs the use of
repeating all that stuff,”
the Mock Turtle inter-
rupted, “if you don't
explain it as you go
on? It’s by far the most
confusing thing / ever
heard |”

“Yes, I think” youd
better leave. off,” said
the Gryphon: and Alice
was only too glad to do
| SO. :

‘Shall we try another figure of the Lobster
Quadrille?” the Gryphon went on. ‘Or
would you like the Mock Turtle to sing you
another song ?” |

‘“Oh, a song, please, if the Mock Turtle
136

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

would be so kind,” Alice replied, so eagerly The Lobster
that the Gryphon said, in a rather offended unas
tone, “H’m! No accounting for tastes!
Sing her ‘ Zurtle Soup, will you, old
fellow ?”

The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and began,
in a voice choked with sobs, to sing this :-—

“Beautiful Soup, so rich and green,

Waiting in a hot tureen!

Who for such dainties would not stoop?

Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Beau—ootiful Soo—oop !
Beau—ootiful Soo—oop !

Soo—oop of the e—e—evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup !

“ Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish,

Game, or any other dish?

Who would not give all else for two p

ennyworth only of beautiful Soup ?

Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup ?
Beau—ootiful Soo—oop !
Beau—ootiful Soo—oop!

Soo—oop of the e—e-—evening,

Beautiful, beauti—tFUL SOUP!”

“Chorus again!” cried the Gryphon, and
137

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

The Lobster the Mock Turtle had just begun to repeat it,
Quadrillé hen a cry of “The trial’s beginning!” was
heard in the distance.

‘“Come ‘on'l” “cried the Garpude and,
taking Alice by the hand, it hurried off, with-
out waiting for the end of the song.

“What trial is it?” Alice panted as she
ran; but the Gryphon only answered ‘‘Come
on!” and ran the faster, while more and more
faintly came, carried on the breeze that fol-
lowed them, the melancholy words :—

‘* Soo—oop of the e—e—evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!”

138

CHAPTER XT
aioe) TIE King and Queen of Hearts
were seated on their throne
= when they arrived, with a great
“4 crowd assembled about them—
all sorts of little birds and beasts, as well as
the whole pack of cards: the Knave was
standing before them, in chains, with a
soldier on each side to guard him; and near
the King was the White Rabbit, with a trum-
pet in one hand, and a scroll of parchment in
the other. In the very middle of the court
“was a table, with a large dish of tarts upon
it: they looked so good, that it made Alice
quite hungry to look at them—“ I wish they'd
get the trial done,” she thought, “and hand
round the refreshments!” But there seemed
to be no chance of this, so she began looking
about her, to pass away the time.
Alice had never been in a court of justice
139

Who Stole
the Tarts ?

Who Stole
the Tarts?

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

before, but she had read about them in books,
and she was quite pleased to find that she
knew the name of nearly everything there.
“That's the judge,” she said to herself,
“because of his great wig.”

The judge, by the way, was the King ; and
as he wore his crown over the wig, he did not
look at all comfortable, and it was certainly
not becoming.

‘“And that’s the jury-box,” thought Alice,
‘“‘and those twelve creatures,” (she was
obliged to say ‘“‘ creatures,” you see, because
some of them were animals, and some were
birds,) “I suppose they are the jurors.” She
said this last word two or three times over
to herself, being rather proud of it: for she
thought, and rightly too, that very few little
girls of her age knew the meaning of it at all.
However, “jurymen” would have done just
as well.

The twelve jurors were all writing very
busily on slates. ‘‘ What are they all doing ?”
Alice whispered to the Gryphon. “They
can't have anything to put down yet, before
the trial’s begun.”

“They’re putting down their names,” the
140

Who stole the tarts?

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
eee ee EER

Gryphon whispered in reply, “for fear they
should forget them before the end of the
trial,”

“Stupid things!” Alice began in a loud,
indignant voice, but she stopped hastily, for
the White Rabbit cried out ‘Silence in the
court!” and the King put on his spectacles
and looked anxiously round, to see who was
talking.

Alice could see, as well as if she were
looking over their shoulders, that all the
jurors were writing down “ stupid things!”
on their slates, and she could even make out
that one of them didn’t know how to spell
“stupid,” and that he had to ask his neigh-
bour to tell him. “A nice muddle their
slates will be in before the trial’s over!”
thought Alice.

One of the jurors had a_ pencil that
squeaked. This, of course, Alice could xof
stand, and she went round the court and
got behind him, and very soon found an op-
portunity of taking it away. She did it
so quickly that the poor little juror (it was
Bill, the Lizard) could not make out at all
what had become of it; so, after hunting all

141

Who Stole
the Tarts ?

ALICE S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Who Stole about for it, he was obliged to write with one
the Tarts? fnoer for the rest of the day; and this was
of very little use, as it left no mark on the
slate.
“Herald, read the accusation!” said the
King.
On this the White Rabbit blew three blasts
on the trumpet, and then unrolled the parch-
ment scroll, and read as follows:

“ The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer day :

The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,
And took them quite away !”

“Consider your verdict,” the King said to
the jury.

“Not yet, not yet!” the Rabbit hastily
interrupted. ‘ There’s a great deal to come
before that!”

‘Call the first witness,” said the King;
and the Rabbit blew three blasts on the
trumpet, and called out ‘‘ First witness !”

The first witness was the Hatter. He
came in with a teacup in one hand and a
piece of bread-and-butter in the other. ‘I

142

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
i

beg pardon, your Majesty,” he began, “ for
bringing these in; but I hadn't quite finished
my tea when I was sent for.”

“You ought to have finished,” said the
King. ‘When did you begin ?”

The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who
had followed him into the court, arm-in-arm
with the Dormouse. ‘‘ Fourteenth of March,
I think it was,” he said.

‘“ Fifteenth,” said the March Hare.

“Sixteenth,” said the Dormouse.

“Write that down,” the King said to the
jury, and the jury eagerly wrote down all
three dates on their slates, and then added
them up, and reduced the answer to shillings
and pence.

“Take off your hat,” the King said to the
Hatter.

“Tt isn’t mine,” said the Hatter.

“ Stolen /” the King exclaimed, turning to
the jury, who instantly made a memorandum
of the fact.

“TI keep them to sell,” the Hatter added as
an explanation: “I’ve none of my own. [I’m
shatter?’

Here the Queen put on her spectacles, and

143

Who Stole
the Tarts ?

Who Stole
the Tarts ?

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

began staring hard at the Hatter, who turned
pale and fidgeted.

“Give your evidence,” said the King;
“and don’t be nervous, or I'll have you
executed on the spot.”

This did not seem to encourage the witness
at all: he kept shifting from one foot to
the other, looking uneasily at the Queen,
and in his confusion he bit a large piece
out of his teacup instead of the bread-and-
butter.

Just at this moment Alice felt a very
curious sensation, which puzzled her a good
deal until she made out what it was: she
was beginning to grow larger again, and she
thought at first she would get up and leave
the court; but on second thoughts she
decided to remain where she was as long as
there was room for her.

‘“‘T wish you wouldn’t squeeze so,” said the
Dormouse, who was sitting next to her. “I
can hardly breathe.”

“TI can’t help it,” said Alice very meekly:
“I’m growing.”

“You've no right to grow ere,” said the
Dormouse,

144

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“Don’t talk nonsense,” said Alice more
boldly : ‘‘ you know you're growing too.”

“Yes, but J grow at a reasonable pace,”
said the Dormouse; “not in that ridiculous
fashion.” And he got up very sulkily and
crossed over to the other side of the court.

All this time the Queen had never left off
staring at the Hatter, and, just as the Dor-
mouse crossed the court, she said to one of
the officers of the court, “Bring me the list
of the singers in the last concert {” on which
the wretched Hatter trembled so, that he
shook off both his shoes.

“Give your evidence,” the King repeated
angrily, ‘or I'll have you executed, whether
you're nervous or not.”

“Tm a poor man, your Majesty,” the
Hatter began, in a trembling voice, a—and |
hadn’t begun my tea—not above a week or so
__and what with the bread-and-butter getting
so thin—and the twinkling of the tea

“The twinkling of what ?” said the King.

“Tt degan with the tea,” the Hatter replied.

“Of course twinkling degizs with a gosk
said the King sharply. ‘‘Do you take me
fora dunce? Goon!”

145

Who Stole
the Tarts ?

Who Stole
the Tarts ?

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

)

“T’m a poor man,” the Hatter went on,
and most things twinkled after that—only
the March Hare said——”

“T didn’t!” the March Hare interrupted in
a great hurry.

“You-didi!”said:the Hatter:

‘“T deny it!” said the March Hare.

‘He denies it,” said the King: ‘leave out
that part.”

‘Well, at any rate, the Dormouse said
the Hatter went on, looking anxiously round

‘6

”

. to see if he would deny it too: but the Dor-

mouse denied nothing, being fast asleep.

“ After that,” continued the Hatters "cl cut
some more bread-and-butter

“ But what did the Dormouse say ?” one of
the jury asked.

“That I can’t remember,” said the Hatter.

“You must remember,” remarked the King,
“or I'll have you executed.”

The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup
and bread-and-butter, and went down on one

knee. “I’m a poor man, your Majesty,” he
began.

“You're a very poor speaker,” said the
King.

146

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

Here one of the guinea-pigs cheered, and
was immediately suppressed by the officers
of the court. (As that is rather a hard word,
I will just explain to you how it was done.
They had a large canvas bag, which tied up
at the mouth with strings: into this they
slipped the guinea-pig, head first, and then
sat upon it.)

“T’m glad I’ve seen that done,” thought

.- Alice. ‘I’ve so often read in the newspapers,

at the end of trials, ‘There was some attempt
_at applause, which was immediately sup-
pressed by the officers of the court,’ and I

- never understood what it meant till now.”

“Tf that’s all you know about it, you may
stand down,” continued the King.

“T can’t go no lower,” said the Hatter:
“I’m on the floor, as it is.”

“Then you may s## down,” the King
replied.

Here the other guinea-pig cheered, and was
suppressed.

“Come, that finishes the guinea-pigs!”
thought Alice. “Now we shall get on
better.”

“T’d rather finish my tea,” said the Hatter,

147

Who Stole
the Tarts ?

Who Stole
the Tarts ?

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

with an anxious look at the Queen, who was
reading the list of singers.

“You may go,” said the King; and the
Hatter hurriedly left the court, without even
waiting to put his shoes on.

‘and just take his head off outside,” the
Queen added to one of the officers; but the
Hatter was out of sight before the officer
could get to the door.

‘Call the next witness!” said the King.

The next witness was the Duchess’s cook.
She carried the pepper-box in her hand, and
Alice guessed who it was, even before she got
into the court, by the way the people near the
door began sneezing all at once.

‘Give your evidence,” said the King.

‘“‘ Sha’n’t,” said the cook.

The King looked anxiously at the White
Rabbit, who said in a low voice, ‘ Your
Majesty must cross-examine ¢/zs witness.”

‘Well, if I must, I must,” the King said
with a melancholy air, and, after folding his
arms and frowning at the cook till his eyes
were nearly out of sight, he said in a deep
voice, “ What are tarts made of 2?”

‘Pepper, mostly,” said the cook.

148

ALICE°S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“Treacle,” said a sleepy voice behind her. Who Stole

“Collar that Dormouse,” the Queen “ 748?
shrieked out. ‘“ Behead that Dormouse!

Turn that Dormouse out of court! Suppress
him! Pinch him! Off with his
whiskers.”

For some minutes the whole
court was in confusion, getting
the Dormouse turned out, and,
by the time they had settled
down again, the cook had dis-
appeared.

“Never mind!” said the
King, with an air of great relief.
“ Call the next witness.” And
he added in an undertone to
the Queen, ‘“ Really, my dear,
you must cross-examine the next witness. It
quite makes my forehead ache!”

Alice watched the White Rabbit as he
fumbled over the list, feeling very curious to
see what the next witness would be like,
“_for they haven’t got much evidence yef,”
she said to herself. Imagine her surprise,
when the White Rabbit read out, at the top
of his shrill little voice, the name ‘‘ Alice!”

L 149

CHAPTER XII

Alice's “ (@2\ (Sa)ERE!” cried Alice, quite forget-
Evidence q PUG |
Axe a ting in the flurry of the moment
A We a) how large she.had grown in the
SENSE last few minutes, and she jumped
up in such a hurry that she tipped over the
jury-box with the edge of her skirt, upsetting
all the jurymen on to the heads of the crowd
below, and there they lay sprawling about,
reminding her very much of a globe of gold-
fish she had accidentally upset the week
before.
‘Oh, I deg your pardon!” she exclaimed in
a tone of great dismay, and began picking
them up again as quickly as she could, for
the accident of the gold-fish kept running in
her head, and she had a vague sort of idea -
that they must be collected at once and put
back into the jury-box, or they would die.
“The trial cannot proceed,” said the King
150

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

in a very grave voice, ‘until all the jurymen
are back in their proper places—a//,” he re-
peated with great emphasis, looking hard at
Alice as he said so.

Alice looked at the jury-box, and saw that,
in her haste, she had put the Lizard in head
downwards, and the poor little thing was
waving its tail about in a melancholy way,
being quite unable to move. She soon got
it out again, and put it right; “not that it
signifies much,” she said to herself; ‘I
should think it would be gute as much use
in the trial one way up as the other.”

As soon as the jury had a little recovered
from the shock of being upset, and their
slates and pencils had been found and handed
back to them, they set to work very diligently
to write out a history of the accident, all
except the Lizard, who seemed too much over-
come to do anything but sit with its mouth
open, gazing up into the roof of the court.

“What do you know about this business ?”
the King said to Alice.

“ Nothing,” said Alice.

“ Nothing whatever ?” persisted the King.

“ Nothing whatever,” said Alice.

I51

Alice's
Evidence

Alice's
Evidence

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

‘“‘That’s very important,” the King said,
turning to the jury. They were just begin-
ning to write this down on their slates, when
the White Rabbit interrupted: ‘‘ Uzimpor-
tant, your Majesty means, of course,” he said
in a very respectful tone, but frowning and
making faces at him as he spoke.

‘‘Unimportant, of course, I meant,” the
King hastily said, and went on himself in an
undertone, ‘“ important — unimportant — un-
important—important "as if he were try-
ing which word sounded best.

Some of the jury wrote it down ‘impor-
tant,” and some ‘‘unimportant.” Alice could
see this, as she was near enough to look over
their slates'; > ““butmitedoesn’t .mattersacbit@
she thought to herself.

At this moment the King, who had been
for some time busily writing in his note-book,
called out “Silence!” and read out from his
book, ‘‘ Rule Forty-two. 4/1 persons more
than a mile high to leave the court.”

Everybody looked at Alice.

“Tm not a mile high,” said Alice.

“You are,” said the King.

“Nearly two miles high,” added the Queen.
152

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

“Well, I sha’n’t go, at any rate,” said Alice:
“besides, that’s not a regular rule: you in-
vented it just now.”

“Tt’s the oldest rule in the book,” said the
King.

“Then it ought to be Number One,” said
Alice.

The King turned pale, and shut his note-
book hastily. ‘‘Consider your verdict,” he
said to the jury, in a low trembling voice.

“‘There’s more evidence to come yet, please
your Majesty,” said the White Rabbit, jump-
ing up in a great hurry: “this paper has just
been picked up.”

‘What's in it?” said the Queen.

“T haven’t opened it yet,” said the White
Rabbit, “but it seems to be a letter, written
by the prisoner to—to somebody.”

“Tt must have been that,” said the King,
“unless it was written to nobody, which isn't
usual, you know.”

“Who is it directed to?” said one of the
jurymen.

“Tt isn’t directed at all,” said the White
Rabbit ; “in fact, there’s nothing written on
the outside.” He unfolded the paper as he

153

Aitce’s
Evidence

Alice's
Evidence

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

spoke, and added “It isn’t a letter after all:
it’s a set of verses.”

‘Are they in the prisoner’s handwriting ?”
asked another of the jurymen.

‘No, they’re not,” said the White Rabbit,
“and that’s the queerest thing about it.”
(The jury all looked puzzled.)

‘He must have imitated somebody else’s
hand,” said the King. (The jury all bright-
ened up again.)

‘‘Please your Majesty,” said the Knave, “I
didn’t write it, and they can’t prove that I
did: there’s no name signed at the end.”

“Tf you didn't sign it,” said the King, “that
only makes the matter worse. You must have
meant some mischief, or else you'd have signed
your name like an honest man.”

There was a general clapping of hands at
this: it was the first really clever thing the
King had said that day.

‘That droves his guilt, of course,” said the
Queen: “so, off with

‘It doesn’t prove anything of the sort!”
said Alice. ‘Why, you don’t even know
what they’re about |”

‘Read them,” said the King.

154

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. Alice's .
“Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?” ne
he asked.

“Begin at the beginning,” the King said
gravely, “and go on till you come to the end;
then stop.”

There was dead silence in the court, whilst
the White Rabbit read out these verses :—

“They told me you had been to her,
And mentioned me to him:
She gave me a good character,
But said I could not swim.

He sent them word I had not gone,
(We know it to be true):

If she should push the matter on,
What would become of you ?

I gave her one, they gave him two,
You gave us three or more;

They all returned from him to you,
Though they were mine before.

If I or she should chance to be
Involved in this affair,

He trusts to you to set them free,
Exactly as we were.

155

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
petit ier eee hots eerie SAE

Alice's My notion was that you had been
Evidence (Before she had this fit)
An obstacle that came between
Him, and ourselves, and it.

Don’t let him know she liked them best,
For this must ever be

A secret, kept from all the rest,
Between yourself and me.”

“That's the most important piece of
evidence we've heard yet,” said the King,
rubbing his hands; ‘‘so now let the jury

(

“If any of them can explain it,” said Alice,
(she had grown so large in the last few
minutes that she wasn’t a bit afraid of inter-
rupting him,) “Vil give him sixpence. J/
don’t believe there’s an atom of meaning in
es

The jury all wrote down on their slates,
‘She doesn’t believe there’s an atom of
meaning in it,’ but none of them attempted
to explain the paper.

“If there's no meaning in it,” said the King,
“that saves a world of trouble, you know, as
we needn’t try to find any. And yet I don’t
156

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
Lae enn ier a RR =

———e

know,” he went on, spreading out the verses
on his knee, and looking at them with one

eye; “I seem to see some meaning in them
after all. said I could not swim— you
can’t swim can you?” he added, turning to
the Knave.

The Knave shook his head sadly. ‘“ Do
I look like it?” hesaid. (Which he certainly
did mot, being made entirely of cardboard.)

“ All right, so far,” said the King, as he
went on muttering over the verses to himself :
“We know tt to be true— that’s the jury,
of course—‘ /f she should push the matter on’
that must be the Queen—‘ /Vhat would
become of you ?’—What, indeed!—‘/ gave
her one, they gave him two— why, that must
be what he did with the tarts, you know ‘

“But it goes on ‘they all returned from
him to you,” said Alice.

“Why, there they are!” said the King
triumphantly, pointing to the tarts on the
table. ‘Nothing can be clearer than that.
Then again—‘ before she had this fit— you
never had fits, my dear, I think?” he said to
the Queer. |

“ Never!” said the Queen furiously, throw-

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ing an inkstand at the Lizard as she spoke.
(The unfortunate little Bill had left off writing
on his slate with one finger, as he found it
made no mark; but he now hastily began
again, using the ink, that was trickling down
his face, as long as it lasted.)

“Then the words don’t 7# you,” said the
King, looking round the court with a smile.
There was a dead silence.

“Tt’s a pun!” the King added in an angry
tone, and everybody laughed.

“Let the jury consider their verdict,” the
King said, for about the twentieth time that
day.

“No, no!” said the Queen. ‘“‘ Sentence
first—verdict afterwards.”

“Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice loudly.
“The idea of having the sentence first!”

“Hold your tongue!” said the Queen,
turning purple.

“YT won't!” said Alice.

“Off with her head!” the Queen shouted
at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.

‘Who cares for you?” said Alice (she had
grown to her full size by this time). ‘‘ You're
nothing but a pack of cards!”

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At this the whole pack rose up into the arr, and
came flying down upon her

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

At this the whole pack rose up into the
air, and came flying down upon her: she
gave a little scream, half of fright and half of
anger, and tried to beat them off, and found
herself lying on the bank, with her head in
the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing
away some dead leaves that had fluttered
down from the trees upon her face.

“Wake up, Alice dear!” said her sister.
“Why, what a long sleep you've had |”

“Oh, I’ve had such a curious dream!”
said Alice, and she told her sister, as well
as she could remember them, all these strange
Adventures of hers that you have just been
reading about; and when she had finished,
her sister kissed her, and said “It was a
curious dream, Gear, certainly: but now run
in to your tea; it’s getting late.” So Alice
got up and ran off, thinking while she ran,
as well she might, what a wonderful dream
it had been.

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BUT her sister sat still just as she had
left her, leaning her head, watching the
setting sun, and thinking of little Alice and
all her wonderful Adventures, till she too
began dreaming after a fashion, and this was
her dream :

First, she dreamed of little Alice herself,
and once again the tiny hands were clasped
upon her knee, and the bright eager eyes
were looking up into hers—she could hear
the very tones of her voice, and see that
queer little toss of her head to keep back
the wandering hair that would always get
into her eyes—and still as she listened, or
seemed to listen, the whole place around her
became alive with the strange creatures of
her little sister's dream.

The long grass rustled at her ca as
the White Rabbit hurried by—the frightened
Mouse splashed his way through the neigh-
bouring pool—she could hear the rattle of the
teacups as the March Hare and his friends
shared their never-ending meal, and the
shrill voice of the Queen ordering off her
unfortunate guests to execution—once more
the pig-baby was sneezing on the Duchess’
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ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

knee, while plates and dishes crashed around
it—once more the shriek of the Gryphon, the
squeaking of the Lizard’s slate-pencil, and
the choking of the suppressed guinea-pigs,
filled the air, mixed up with the distant sobs
of the miserable Mock Turtle.

So she sat on with closed eyes, and half
believed herself in Wonderland, though she
knew she had but to open them again, and
all would change to dull reality—the grass
would be only rustling in the wind, and the
pool rippling to the waving of the reeds—the
rattling teacups would change to the tinkling
sheep bells, and the Queen’s shrill cries to
the voice of the shepherd boy—and the sneeze
of the baby, the shriek of the Gryphon, and
all the other queer noises, would change (she
knew) to the confused clamour of the busy
farm-yard—while the lowing of the cattle in
the distance would take the place of the Mock
Turtle’s heavy sobs.

Lastly, she pictured to herself how this
same little sister of hers would, in the after-
time, be herself a grown woman; and how
she would keep, through all her riper years,
the simple and loving heart of her childhood:

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and how she would gather about her other
little children, and make ¢hezy eyes bright
and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps
even with the dream of Wonderland of long
ago: and how she would feel with all their
simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all
their simple joys, remembering her own child-
life, and the happy summer days.

in Wonderland
by Leurs Carroll

ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR RACKHAM

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Alice’s Adventures